The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned that prosecuting perpetrators of electoral violence and their sponsors is essential to reducing violence in the nation’s elections. It also stressed the need to establish an Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal to handle such infractions.
Like previous polls, the recent elections held on February 25 and March 18 were marred by violence. Numerous people were killed, ballot boxes and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines were stolen, and in some cases destroyed.
At a 2021 public hearing on the “Bill for an Act to establish the National Electoral Offences Commission,” INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said that the country’s electoral process would remain incomplete if electoral offenders continued to act with impunity. The hearing, organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, highlighted the additional powers granted to the commission by the new Electoral Act of 2022. Yakubu argued that while electoral offenders were being tried, the masterminds behind the crimes had not been properly addressed, and he lamented the failure to pass the bill establishing the commission.
Speaking with our correspondent on Friday, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, noted that the creation of the new commission would make electoral offenders and their sponsors think twice before acting. “Electoral violence should not be tolerated,” he said. “That is why the commission has been calling for the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal, specifically to try cases related to election infractions. Stakeholders have been urging the creation of this tribunal for many years, especially after the 2011 general elections. I strongly believe that if perpetrators of electoral violence and their sponsors know they will be held accountable, they will reconsider their actions. The commission has succeeded in prosecuting a few electoral offenders, but their sponsors have largely been untouched. We need to change this.”
Comments are closed for this story.