Olanipekun Wants Section 65 Of Electoral Act Expunged

Chairman, Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) has suggested that the Section 65 of the 2022 Electoral Act as amended be expunged.

The legal luminary said the Act is very dangerous to the electoral system because it empowers the Chief Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to return and also review his decision.

The former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that section of the electoral act,  is  giving a returning officer and by extension INEC the power  to do and undo.

Olanipekun stated this yesterday in Ado Ekiti, the state capital while speaking with reporters after he paid a visit to Governor Biodun Oyebanji, in his office.

He said, “To me, it is a very dangerous section, so novel in the sense that, here you have a section that empowers a returning officer after returning to review his decision within a period of seven days.

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 “The returning officer is not a court of law, not a tribunal, not vested with jurisdiction to exercise quasi- decision or to assume jurisdiction over any matter that is judicial in nature”.

Olanipekun said he was not aware of any similar section in previous electoral acts, or  any similar section in any of the electoral acts of any country in the world.

“When you now invest in a returning officer of INEC, the power to do and undo, the power to return and review his decision is dangerous to the polity”

“The chief returning officer is the chairman of INEC, meaning you can return someone as President today, and tomorrow, when there are agitations here and there, he may withdraw his decision, saying  “I am revising myself and am now returning somebody else”

  Olanipekun, said he was so surprised that the National Assembly had to allow that section to crept into the electoral act which they submitted to Mr. President for signing.

He urged the National Assembly that they can still remove that proviso and called on all stakeholders, particularly the political parties to “shine their eyes”, to monitor INEC, the returning officers, so that nothing untoward will happen to any party, any candidate returned to be unreturned again.

The Act says: The decision of the returning officer shall be final on any question arising from or relating to – (a) unmarked ballot paper; (b) rejected ballot paper; and (c) declaration of scores of candidates and the return of a candidate:

Provided that the commission shall have the power within seven days to review the declaration and return where the Commission determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election.

(2) A decision of the returning officer under subsection (1) may be reviewed by an election tribunal or court of competent jurisdiction in an election petition proceedings under this Act.