INEC vows to be tougher in prosecuting electoral offenders

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned that its judicial and legislative action in the last few days underscored its effort to deal with offences involving officials of the commission assigned to carry out designated responsibilities.

INEC’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning in his remarks at the first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media held in Abuja on Friday.

He boldly expressed happiness that there has been significant improvement in the recently conducted off-cycle governorship election particularly in Ondo State.

“The recent Ondo State governorship election has been widely acknowledged to be an improvement especially in the management of logistics and performance of election technology. We will strive harder to ensure the continuous improvement of our elections.

“However, being a multi-stakeholder responsibility, we appeal for the continuous support of all and sundry, especially in critical areas of reform.
“One of these areas of reform is the prosecution of electoral offenders.

Judicial and legislative action in the last few days underscore our effort to deal with offences involving officials of the commission assigned to carry out designated responsibilities.

“However, it also highlights the challenges we face in dealing with electoral offences. The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point. The commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election.

“In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court. Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted.

“So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending,” he lamented.

Enumerating major obstacle facing the commission to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard; “is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed.”

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases.
“It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases. I urge the media to join in this patriotic advocacy for the good of our electoral democracy,” he said.