A group known as ‘Kwara must change’ has written to the Independent national electoral commission(INEC) to commence a recall of the Senate president, Bukola Saraki.
In the letter, the President of the group, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, demanded for the Kwara central voters registration list in order to process the recall. In a statement released on Friday, the group reveals that the commission had a meeting with them and declined to release the list. Attached below is a copy of the letter obtained by PoliticsNGR.
The statement read;
On August 1st, 2017, Kwara Must Change announced the postponement of the recall exercise of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki over the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) inability to formally respond to our request for the certified copy of voter’s registration list.
Sequel to our complaint about INEC lack of prompt response, Kwara Must Change received an invitation to meet with the leadership of the commission yesterday, 3rd August 2017 at their Kwara State head office, located at Western Reservoir Road in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital.
At the brief meeting, which took place around 1 pm yesterday, we were made to understand that the state office INEC cannot release the copy of the voters register as requested by Kwara Must Change. Consequently, we were given a letter, which directed us to the Chairman of the Commission in Abuja.
The letter with reference no INEC/KW/299/17, signed by the Administrative Secretary, Mr Paul Atser has as its heading, ‘’RE: REQUEST FOR KWARA CENTRAL VOTERS REGISTRATION LIST FOR THE RECALL OF SENATOR BUKOLA SARAKI’’.
The letter reads in part, ‘’I am directed to request you to forward your request to the Honorable Chairman of the commission for his consideration.
It is important to state that, while we do not have any issue with approaching the Honorable Chairman as directed, we find it strange that a Senatorial District affair cannot be handled by the state office of INEC.
We contend that, if each of the 109 Senatorial Districts of Nigeria has to approach the Chairman to request for their voter’s registration list, certainly, it is going to bring some unnecessary complications.
Furthermore, while we are currently seeking legal advice on this development, not withstanding, we shall immediately proceed to the office of the Honorable Chairman in Abuja for prompt action on our request to fast the recall exercise.
We, however, maintained that the recall of a Senator in 1 out of the 109 Senatorial Districts of Nigeria should be a local affair and the release of the voter’s registration list, in our opinion, shouldn’t be outside the capacity of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner.
In the main time, the general public should know that the recall exercise of Senator Bukola saraki is still very much alive and it shall be actualized in due time.
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