Senate Clears Amupitan’s As INEC Chairman
The Senate has approved the appointment of Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Amupitan, a professor of Law, was confirmed by the upper chamber after his screening on Thursday.
Amupitan succeeds Mahmood Yakubu who superintended two national elections and retired after serving two terms of five years as INEC chairman.
Following his confirmation by the Senate, Amupitan will oversee preparations for upcoming off-cycle governorship elections and lay the groundwork for the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan becomes the sixth substantive Chairman of INEC, succeeding Mahmood Yakubu, who has officially concluded his tenure as the INEC boss.
Amupitan’s confirmation came after over two hours of questioning by senators, who pressed him on how he plans to restore credibility to Nigeria’s electoral process and implement meaningful reforms within the commission.
The 58-year-old don was nominated by President Bola Tinubu and received formal endorsement from the National Council of State last week.
Amupitan said he would examine the Electoral Act to strengthen the credibility of Nigerian elections. According to him, there are inconsistencies in the timeline of elections in Nigeria, a situation he says can be improved. He stated that credible elections would restore voters’ confidence.
“So, we’re going to see how an election is credible, so that the loser will come and congratulate the winner and say, ‘You won fairly and well’.
“So if we can do that, it’s just like a judge convicting a person, sentencing him to death, and he (convict) says, ‘Well done, because I believe I’ve gotten justice,’” the professor said.
The professor also denied the speculation that he was part of the legal team that represented President Bola Tinubu at the 2023 Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC).
“You also talked about whether I was part of the presidential election team. I have also read it. “It is very simple to answer. The Law reports on those cases have been out. And even when I was coming, I decided to have certified true copies of the counsel that appeared.
“I never, I did not appear in the presidential election tribunal and at the Supreme Court,” the 58-year-old Law professor said while responding to a question from the lawmaker representing Bayelsa West, Senator Seriake Dickson.
He also denied representing Peter Obi of the Labour Party or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the tribunal. “I was not part of it,” he stated when Senate President Godswill Akpabio asked him whether he was part of the legal teams of the opposition.