Confusion over Cross River’s REC

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described as misleading, media reports that its Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Cross Rivers state, Frankland Briyai was sacked from his position.

Briyai had recently declared his aspiration for the governorship race in Bayelsa state at the Commission secretariat in Calabar while simultaneously announcing his resignation as REC.

But INEC has denied knowledge of the aspirant resignation insisting that he is still in service.

Speaking on Thursday at the opening of a National Strategy Meeting on Capturing Disaggregated Data of Persons with Disabilities [PWDS] held in Abuja, Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Barrister Festus Okoye, said the Commission has no power to sack Briyai but merely expressed its displeasure over what he called the unlawful way the REC made public his intention to join partisan politics without following the due process.

He said:” What happened was that our REC in Cross River did not forward any letter to any of the appointing authorities, did not have any communication with the supervising National Commissioner, did not have any communication with the Chairman of the Commission, but organized a sendoff party for himself on the 8th of August, invited staff of the Commission, invited the media, invited political parties and he used that particular opportunity in the premises of the Commission, announced his resignation, announced the fact that he had joined partisan politics and announced that he has formally joined one of the registered political parties in the office and thereafter he entered an official vehicle of the Commission and drove out to his official residence”.

”The truth of the matter is that the Commission does not have the power to sack or dismiss any REC because we are not the appointing authority, so what the Commission has done is to withdraw the powers donated to him (REC Cross River State) by the Commission but he still remains a REC until he resigns properly or until he is removed by the president who is the appointing authority.”

“The Resident Electoral Commissioners in all the federation are appointed the way National Commissioners of INEC are appointed. We are appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria subject to confirmation by the Senate.

“The way National Commissioners are removed is the same way RECs are removed. A REC or National Commissioner of INEC can only be removed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on an address to the Senate supported by two-thirds majority and the National Commissioner or REC can only be removed for inability to perform his or her functions or for misconduct.”

On Briyai’s resignation, Okoye said: “A REC or a National Commissioner of the Commission can resign his appointment to the appointing authority, in this case the president of the Federal Republic.  Before you are appointed as a National Commissioner or REC, the law or the Constitution requires that you should not be a member of any political party and the implication is that for the 5 year period you remain as a REC or National Commissioner, you are not supposed be a member of a political party because you have become an umpire and an umpire cannot be seen or said to be a card carrying member of any political party.

“Since he (REC Cross River)has done what he has done and compromised his independence, we have removed all the powers donated to him by the Commission and all those powers now reside with the Administrative Secretary in the state”, the IVEC Chairman said.

Ahead November governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, Okoye said the electoral umpire would soon release the timetable for stakeholder engagement for Permanent Voter Card Collection and other activities.

He said: “In the next few days, the Commission will announce the time table for stakeholder engagement for PVC collection and other activities relating to the states where we are going to have standalone governorship elections and the issue of this data collection will be one of the big issues in relation to whether we conduct good elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states.”