The House of Representatives on Thursday raised the alarm that the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission might jeopardise the conduct of the April general election.
The reaction followed the presentation of a report by the House Committee on Electoral Matters on the preparations for the poll.
Two issues were highlighted by the Alhaji Hamisu Shira-led committee that made the members of the House to raise the alarm.
The issues bordered on the ongoing registration of voters and INEC�s decision to verify the claims of candidates for the poll.
The House, therefore, resolved that its leadership should meet with its counterpart in the Senate to brainstorm on the possible ways of averting a national crisis that might occur if the elections were not conducted as scheduled.
Besides, it mandated all its members who are lawyers to meet with INEC and come up with suggestions on how it could make the commission adhere strictly to the relevant electoral laws.
Section 10 (5) of the Electoral Act 2006, requires INEC to stop voter registration, updating and revision of voter register, when it is 120 days before any election.
Based on the provision of the Act, the voter registration ought to have ended on December 16, 2006, since the elections will commence on April 14.
Shira had while presenting the report said that before the House went on Christmas vacation, it amended the Act to accommodate the ongoing registration which will end on January 31, 2007.
Shira pointed out that since the Senate did not accede to the amendment, the voter register being prepared by INEC could not be used for the elections.
He said, �My point of disagreement is that under the Electoral Act, registration of voters should have stopped on December 16. But we are all aware of the fact that the exercise is still going on.
�There is cause to worry about the inevitability of INEC not conducting elections in 2007. This is because the register to be produced cannot be used for the elections.�
The Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, said that if the Senate had also amended the Electoral Act, the likelihood of someone challenging the voter registration in court would be remote.
Masari said, �Honourable members, I am afraid that this country is in a very difficult situation. The 2007 elections may not hold going by what is happening now.
�We had envisaged this problem and went ahead to amend the Act to accommodate whatever INEC is doing now, but the Senate has refused to concur with it. What are we going to do now? For instance, does the Act provide for INEC to verify the claims of candidates?�
Responding to these posers by Masari, members expressed the fear that INEC was being used to truncate the elections by working against the provisions of the constitution and the Act.
The Chairman of the Committee on Justice, Mr. Alex Nwofe, explained that Section 10 (5) of the Act did not call for fresh registration of voters.
Nwofe, who described the exercise as illegal, also said nothing in the Act enpowered INEC to verifiy candidates� claims.
The House Leader, Alhaji Abdul Ningi, said that Nigerians would absolve the House of any blame if INEC did not conduct the elections in April.
Ningi also blamed the Senate for not concurring with the amendment to the Act, which sought to extend the period of voter registration.
He said, �We should pray that a Nigerian does not take INEC to court over the legality of its voter register. I know that something is wrong but we should not give room for rancorous elections. We must do everything to ensure that elections are conducted.�
Another member of the House, Mr. Uche Onyeaguacha, warned that it would be foolhardy for anyone to believe that INEC would not be challenged in court for allegedly breaching the provisions of the constitution and the electoral law.
He vowed that if nobody initiated a court action against the commission, he would do so.
Onyeaguacha said, �Mr. Speaker, this House is not like a church or a mosque where people pray that things should not happen. We should do the right things at the right time and stop thinking that the wrong things we do today will become right tomorrow because of prayers.�
The Leader of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in the House, Alhaji Aminu Bello Tambuwal, noted that it was possible for an inexperienced lawyer to defeat INEC in the court, if the ongoing voter registration was challenged.
He added that with an illegal register, it was possible for INEC not to conduct any elections in April.
But Mr. John Eno said that unless the National Assembly colluded with INEC, there was no way the commission could truncate the poll.
He, therefore, appealed to the leadership of the National Assembly to explore avenues to accommodate the fresh registration as well as other measures to ensure that INEC did not fail in the conduct of the poll.
After the contributions by Alhaji Datti-Baba Ahmed, Nasiru Dantie, Nkechi Nwogu and others, the House resolved to meet with the leadership of the Senate on how to resolve issues that could scuttle the elections.
Reacting, INEC�s National Commissioner in charge of Publicity, Alhaji Mohammed Jumare, said, �We are not registering voters per se. We are merely revalidating the voters. And we have up till the end of January to do that.
�Anybody who is saying we have violated the Electoral Act by the revalidation does not seem to understand the law.
�We are only giving the voters the opportunity to look at the register and correct whatever mistake there is in the ways their names were written.
�There is no cause for alarm. INEC has not violated any law and it is unthinkable that anybody will think of taking the commission to court to stop the election. Anybody who does that is not a good Nigerian.�
When told of the members� insistence that INEC was in-between the revalidation and conducting fresh registration of voters, Jumare said, �It is not true.
�There is nothing new in what we are doing. We are not registering new voters. Their names are already in the register. It is only that the former register did not contain photographs of the voters. We are adding that.�
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, has urged members of the Force to be above board during and after the April general election.
Ehindero, at a meeting on Thursday with top police commissioners to reappraise the operational readiness of the Force for the poll, also asked them to prepare for emergency redeployment.
He was represented at the meeting by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo.
Ehiindero, who was said to be attending another meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo on the security situation in the Niger Delta, directed the commissioners to identify and send riot policemen to volatile areas in their commands to prevent violence during the elections.�
He also said there was a need for the commissioners to organise meetings with all those who have something to do with the elections in their states.
The IG added that there were plans to train officers and men on the rudiments of manning election posts and acquaint them with the 2006 Electoral Act.
THE PUNCH had on January 10, 2006 reported that the IG would meet with top police chiefs over the general elections.
The meeting which later went into closed doors, was said to have deliberated on the reforms going on in the Force and the new pay package announced by the Federal Government on Wednesday