{"id":67553,"date":"2025-06-08T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T11:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=67553"},"modified":"2025-06-08T11:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T11:43:01","slug":"2027-polls-serap-asks-tinubu-to-review-inec-rec-appointments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/08\/2027-polls-serap-asks-tinubu-to-review-inec-rec-appointments\/","title":{"rendered":"2027 Polls: SERAP Asks Tinubu to Review INEC REC Appointments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Bola Tinubu to review the recent appointments of some Resident Electoral Commissioners into the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter dated June 7 and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP raised concerns about the political neutrality of at least three confirmed appointees allegedly linked to the All Progressives Congress.<\/p>\n<p>The group said allowing politically affiliated individuals to serve as RECs would undermine public trust in INEC and compromise the integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>It asked the president to replace the affected appointees with Nigerians of high integrity who are unaffiliated with any political party.<\/p>\n<p>The call follows the October 2023 confirmation of four RECs &#8211; Etekamba Umoren for Akwa Ibom, Isah Shaka Ehimeakne for Edo, Bunmi Omoseyindemi for Lagos, and Anugbum Onuoha for Rivers. SERAP said their appointments raise red flags.<\/p>\n<p>It also urged the president to direct the Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, to draft a bill that strengthens INEC\u2019s independence in line with constitutional provisions and international best practices.<\/p>\n<p>SERAP reminded Tinubu that the law requires political neutrality in such appointments and warned that public perception of bias in INEC could weaken confidence in the 2027 elections.<\/p>\n<p>It cited Section 156(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022, which disqualify political party members from serving in such roles.<\/p>\n<p>The group also referenced international frameworks like the African Charter on Democracy and UN Human Rights Committee recommendations that demand fully impartial electoral bodies.<\/p>\n<p>According to SERAP, removing partisan appointees would help rebuild trust in INEC and address credibility issues that affected the 2023 elections.<\/p>\n<p>It concluded by calling for swift action to protect Nigeria\u2019s democracy and ensure that the 2027 elections truly reflect the people\u2019s will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has urged President Bola Tinubu to review the recent appointments of some Resident Electoral Commissioners into the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the 2027 general elections. In a letter dated June 7 and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP raised concerns about the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":67554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67555,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67553\/revisions\/67555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}