INEC Chairman nominee, Amupitan speaks of taking over LG elections conduct, use of drone in elections

By Musa Baba Adamu

President Bola Tinubu pick for the chairmanship of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Joash Amupitan has indicated that the Commission under him would consider calls to take over the conduct of Local Government elections in the country.
He also the Commission in its quest to better this conduct of elections in country might resort to the use of drones during elections.
Amupitan who spoke while answering questions during his screening at the Senate yesterday.
Amupitan however, said if the Commission were to take over the conduct of local government elections it would constitute more burden on it.
He admitted that the call for INEC’s take over “has been debated widely. The view of many people is that it should be transferred to INEC because of what is happening in LGs.
“But is it not going to add another burden on INEC if we are to conduct elections in over 700 LGs?
“Because it has been long debated, we will look at it but it is not something I have answers to for now”.
Amupitan, who was nominated by President Bola Tinubu to chair the electoral umpire, is currently being screened at the red chamber.
Responding to the question put forward by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu over widespread insecurity in the country, the nominee proposed the use of drones to monitor elections.
He also assured that there would be more investment in logistics to procure devices including drones that would be used to monitor movements.
He said, “The issue of security is a major challenge but at the same time, it can be tackled.
“I know there is a joint committee on election security, one of the things we have to do is to work with that committee to see how we can handle security issues in some challenge areas.
“We can also invest more on logistics to ensure that we can penetrate every part of Nigeria even if we have to use drones or whatever to ensure that material gets to where it ought to”.