THE Atiku Alliance for Good Governance, TAAGG, yesterday, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to save Nigeria’s democracy by upholding extant laws that affect the conduct of the country’s Presidential and National Assembly elections and invalidating discredited polls where necessary, as recommended by law.

This is  sequel to the admission by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, that the election, through which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner, suffered discounts and did not fully comply with the laws guiding its conduct.

The TAAGG, in a statement by its leader, Obiora Okonkwo disclosed that INEC ought to use available legal windows to review the elections and invalidate those that were grossly challenged.

Okonkwo said: “By the admission of the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, it is obvious that the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria did not satisfy the law as spelt out by the Electoral Act.” 

For this reason, therefore, it is expected that the chairman should, standing on extant lawful provisions, review the conduct of his officials in the performance of their duty on election day and where found to have compromised, not only should they be penalized, but the specific results affected by heir compromise should be isolated and discounted from the total votes cast and treated as invalid votes. 

“This is the surest way of sanitizing the electoral system because it will make no sense to penalize INEC officers found to have compromised the election and yet retain the compromised result. Allowing such compromised results to stand makes nonsense of any effort to strengthen the electoral system in Nigeria and further jeopardises Nigeria’s march to steady democracy.

“For us in TAAGG, we believe that the success of Nigeria in sanitising its electoral system by ensuring that people did not benefit from compromised results, and that the rule of law prevails at all times, will be a major boost to the growth of democracy in Africa, especially in West Africa, where we have seen a gradual return of military rule owing to flawed elections and lack of respect for the rule of law.