The Senate has confirmed Joash Amupitan as the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Amupitan, a professor of Law, was confirmed by the upper chamber after his screening on Thursday.
His 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 becomes the sixth substantive Chairman of INEC, succeeding Mahmood Yakubu, who has officially concluded his tenure as the INEC boss.
The Chairman-designate pushed for electoral reforms, saying that Nigeria deserves elections where the loser will congratulate the winner.
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 represent 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.
