By; OLADELE ADEDAYO, Ado-Ekiti
Legal giant, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has picked holes in the Section 65 of the Electoral Act, describing it as “very dangerous act in our electoral system”, adding that the section empowers the Chief Returning Officer of Indeoendent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to return and also review his decision.
Olanipekun, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), 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”.
According to the Legal luminary, “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 punctured the Electoral Act on Wednesday, when he paid a private visit to the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, in his office in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
According to him, “that section of the electoral act,you are giving a returning officer and by extension INEC the power to do and undo.
He pointed out that he is not aware of any similar section in any of any similar section in previous electoral act, or any similar section in any of the electoral act 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”
Chief Olanipekun, said he was so surprised that the National Assembly have to allowed that section to crept into the electoral act which they submitted to Mr. President for signing.
He,therefore urged the National Assembly members 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 happens to any party, any candidate returned to be unreturned again.
