Mike Igini, a lawyer and two-term Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, has expressed his utter dissatisfaction with the conduct of the just concluded 2023 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Igini, who served in Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States, said he was shocked by the flagrant disregard for laws, guidelines and procedures guiding conduct of election in the country.
Before the election, Igini, who many saw as a man of impeccable character and integrity because of his actions during his stints as INEC REC, repeatedly assured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible because politicians would no longer be able to rig and manipulate election results.
Igini, who was first appointed in June 2010, by President Goodluck Jonathan and was reappointed in 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari, at every opportunity, doubled down on his assurance and optimism of transparent electoral process, adding that the introduction of BVAS and IREV was a game changer.
However, what happened during election was totally different from what Igini promised, cases of voter intimidation and suppression were widespread. Snatching of ballot boxes, mutilation of election results sheets and refusal to upload results in real time to INEC results viewing portal (IREV) from polling booths became the order of the day.
Reacting to what transpired during the polls in an interview with Vanguard, Igini said the developments have left him in complete shock.
“I can understand the feelings of extreme disappointment, pain and frustrations of fellow countrymen and women particularly youths, over what was promised and the painful experience they went through during the elections and their unmet expectations.
” We are in these agonizing moments of pain together. l have been down emotionally and still in shock over the level of deviation from established laws, issued guidelines and procedures that we all signed into and that I leveraged, honestly and faithfully to call on Nigerians to participate fully to determine their leaders. I will never be part of any plot or design to deceive Nigerians, may such a day never come in my lifetime. My passion for free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria did not begin in 2023. Those who have diligently followed my advocacy for election integrity will remember my zealous exertions and subsequent detention in Enugu before and after the annulment of the June 12 elections in 1993, many also will recall my participation in CODER for electoral reforms after the fiasco that was described as the 2007 general election.
“Those who are keen on elections will also recall how I took the same passion to my supervisory roles in the regulation of the electoral process as a Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River, intervention missions in Anambra, Imo state Guber elections in both 2011 and 2015, Edo, and later Akwa-Ibom states. Frankly, l don’t think I did anything wrong by the weekly voters’ and civic education that I gave to Nigerians without being paid a dime at a time that l had offers for a consultancy that I politely declined because l wanted to be objective in seeing to the implementation of the process that I was part of putting in place before my tenure ended last year.”
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