By Chuks Ehirim/North
The political parties and electoral matters committee of the national conference has set up a three-man team to protest to conference Chairman, Justice Legbo Kutigi, over the non supply of vital documents required for the efficient performance of the committee.
Justice Legbo Kutigi
Other members of the team, led by the committee Chairman and former Senate President, Iyuchu Ayu, are former Chief of Army Staff, Alani Akinrinade, and former Ogun State Governor, Segun Osoba.
The documents the committee wants include the amended copy of the 2010 Electoral Act, reports of the previous national conference in 1995 and 2005, as well as the one produced by the electoral reform panel headed by Muhammadu Uwais.
“We are just not getting these documents, so after we talk plenty of grammar here, I am worried about the recommendations we are going to make,” Ayu said.
The committee members are not the only ones affected by the negligence of the conference secretariat. Even the secretariat staff of the committee complain of being starved of the tools to do their work.
One of them lamented to the committee members that they have been spending their personal money to run the secretariat since the committee began sitting.
“It has not been easy for us,” he disclosed. “Apart from making photo copies, we still use our money to produce copies of the proceedings so that you could have working documents. We are not given working tools. I still use my laptop to do the work here.”
The committee plans to make far reaching recommendations to address the malaise in the electoral system.
They may include the creation of special courts to prosecute electoral offenders, ensuring that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is really independent of the executive, and removing the power of appointment of key officers of the body from the Presidency.