Lecturer cautions electoral commission on Diaspora voting

A lecturer at the Federal University Dutse in Jigawa, Dr Abdulhakeem Adejumoh, on Tuesday cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to venture into diaspora voting.

Adejumoh said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse that the commission must learn to conduct perfect elections in the country before allowing Nigerians in diaspora to vote.

“Internal elections still have some issues hence there is need to perfect that before advancing to diaspora participation in Nigeria polls,” he said.

“INEC has no capacity to conduct a diaspora polls because of some intrigues involved,” Adejumoh said, adding that resources and expertise were major factors that could make INEC to fail.

Adejumoh believed that it would be difficult for INEC to deploy personnel to countries of the world for election.

He argued that if such elections were left in the hand of embassies, it could be rigged in favour of any ruling party.

According to him, the current leadership of INEC has a lot to do, to raise the level of performance of the commission to the minimum set by Prof. Attahiru Jega.

He said that the commission must improve its performance to ensure free, fair, credible and acceptable elections in the country.