ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The 2023 Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Bishop Isaac Idahosa, has called for appropriate penalties against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and public officials for electoral failures.
Idahosa speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, lamented the lack of accountability in Nigeria’s electoral system.
Idahosa, an ally of former Kano governor and NNPP’s 2023 presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, stated that, “We don’t punish anybody for what he does; there are no consequences, so he keeps on repeating it.
“INEC does this, and nobody puts them to check, and then it repeats it. Once there are no consequences for your actions or inactions, then a repeat will occur because there is no accountability.”
INEC introduced the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the 2023 general elections.
However, several politicians criticized their efficiency, with INEC attributing operational issues to technical glitches.
In the last election, Kwankwaso and Idahosa finished fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
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Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won with 8,794,726 votes, followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 6,984,520 votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) with 6,101,533 votes.
The results were contested up to the Supreme Court, but the court ruled that the non-availability of results on IReV was not sufficient grounds to nullify the election.
Idahosa also expressed concerns over the growing influence of individuals over institutions, saying, “Money politicking has taken over the system.”
As a forward, he suggested that all elections be conducted on the same day to enhance transparency and reduce costs.
“I will want to suggest where all elections are done on the same day. That will help curb a whole lot of things – presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, all on the same day.
“It will cut costs and will get the desirable results. But when you have this in a span of one or two weeks after the presidential, a whole lot can go, bandwagon can go,” he said.
Idahosa dismissed claims of divisions within the NNPP, reaffirming Kwankwaso’s leadership of the party.
“To begin with, I’m still very close to my principal; he was here last week, the 8th of February when I celebrated my 60th birthday.
“So we are still very in touch, we are very close. No crisis in our party, he’s still our national leader, His Excellency Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso,” he stated.
He further insisted that the NNPP has no factions, adding that those claiming to be in opposition within the party had already been expelled.
“We don’t have factions; those so-called factions have been expelled from the party.
“There is no room to emphasise factions in our party, we just got one party headed and being led by His Excellency, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso,” he said.