LAGOS, Nigeria (CHATNEWSTV) — The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) on Sunday called on President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the appointment of at least three alleged members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
SERAP said the appointments violate constitutional provisions that require INEC officials to be non-partisan and could undermine the credibility of the 2027 general elections.
In a letter dated June 7 and signed by deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization urged Tinubu to nominate “qualified Nigerians who are persons of unquestionable integrity and a non-member of a political party” in place of those confirmed by the Senate in October 2023.
“Your government has the constitutional responsibilities to ensure both the appearance and the actual independence and impartiality in the appointment of INEC top officials,” Oluwadare said in the letter. “Holding the 2027 general elections amid the appointment of partisan RECs will make a mockery of Nigerians’ right to participate in free and fair elections.”
The RECs in question include Etekamba Umoren (Akwa Ibom), Isah Shaka Ehimeakne (Edo), Bunmi Omoseyindemi (Lagos), and Anugbum Onuoha (Rivers).
SERAP also asked Tinubu to instruct the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to draft and submit a bill to the National Assembly aimed at enhancing INEC’s independence, “in conformity with your oath of office and constitutional requirements ahead of the 2027 general elections.”
Citing various sections of the 1999 Constitution, Electoral Act 2022, and international norms, SERAP warned that partisan appointments threaten the electoral body’s neutrality.
“The credibility and legitimacy of elections depend mostly on the independence and impartiality of those appointed to manage the process,” the letter said. “Without an independent and impartial INEC, the democratic rights of Nigerians would remain illusory.”
SERAP argued that public trust in the electoral process would deteriorate unless the president reverses the controversial appointments.
“Anyone to be appointed as RECs for INEC must clearly be non-partisan, independent, impartial and neutral,” the letter said. “Treating INEC as a line department accountable to bureaucratic higher-ups and high-ranking politicians is antithetical to constitutional and international standards.”
The group reminded Tinubu that Nigeria, as a party to both the United Nations treaties and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, is bound to uphold the independence and impartiality of its electoral institutions.
