Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has faulted the public holiday declared by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, ahead of Saturday’s area council polls.
Falana said the minister lacked the authority to declare a holiday since he is neither a governor nor the Minister of Interior.
Wike had on Thursday, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, declared Friday a work-free day. The minister also imposed a restriction of movement from 8pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday.
The elections were held across the six council areas of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Abaji and Kwali on Saturday.
However, Falana faulted the minister’s action, declaring it illegal, noting that the work-free day was disregarded by many people because it had no legal backing.
According to Falana, Wike is not in any way involved in the FCT area council election process, saying only the Independent National Electoral Commission has the authority to make announcements on the poll.
The human rights lawyer said, “He (Wike) is not involved in the conduct of the election. He has no business talking about a holiday because he has no power to declare one. That was why the holiday was ignored.
“Only the President, the Minister of Interior, and the governors can declare a holiday. No minister has the right to declare a holiday for INEC; you are not involved in the conduct of elections. So, you cannot declare it as if it’s your own election.
Contrary to what people are saying, INEC is not bound to take directives from anybody, including the National Assembly and even the President, under the constitution. It has to be made clear that it is an independent body.”
Speaking on the controversies trailing the new Electoral Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, Falana said the rejection of compulsory e-transmission of election results was a setback to the electoral progress made before 2023.
He said that as of 2023, the transmission of results was optional and that it should have been made compulsory in the new Electoral Act.
“We have gone beyond the level they (National Assembly) have returned us to. In 2023, it was whether it was compulsory or optional for INEC to transmit results. Since then, we had started campaigning that the transmission of results should be compulsory.
“The debate is not and has not been whether we can transmit results or not. INEC promised to do that in 2023, and it apologised for failing to do so on the excuse of a system glitch. That is what we should be addressing, not where the National Assembly has taken us to.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission said it was possible. If you are now saying there were some areas with poor network, that is what we should address. But it’s doable, he added”
Falana asked the Federal Government to take a cue from India, where over 600 million people voted and the election results were known within 24 hours in 2024.
Discover more from starmich blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
