By Akombo Aondona, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 General Elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has launched a bid to secure legal backings that would empower it to arrest and prosecute highly-placed electoral offense sponsors.
Chairman, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this on Tuesday, 23 August, 2022, in Abuja while addressing members of the House of Representatives at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Electoral Matters on the National Electoral Offences Commission Bill.
Yakubu commended the committee members for organising the public hearing barely four months after the Senate had done the same.
His words: “On behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), I would like to thank the Honourable Chairman and Honourable Member of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters in particular and the leadership of the National Assembly in general for organising this public hearing. Coming about four months after a similar public hearing on the same Bill by the Senate Committee on INEC held on 28th April 2022, this is the closest the nation has come to the passage of the long overdue National Electoral Offences Commission Bill into law. I hope in the next few months, the National Assembly will pass the Bill so that it will not suffer the fate of previous efforts which were inchoate at the end of the lifespan of the Assembly.
“It is clear that the reform of our electoral process cannot be complete without effective sanctions on violators of our laws. At present, INEC is saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders under the Electoral Act. This has been very challenging for the Commission. For instance, since the 2015 General Election, 125 cases of electoral offences were filed in various courts out of which 60 convictions have been secured so far, including the most recent one in Akwa Ibom State.
“The Commission would like to see more successful prosecution of offenders, not just ballot box snatchers, falsifiers of election results and vote buyers at polling units but most importantly, their sponsors. We look forward to the day when highly placed sponsors of thuggery, including high-profile figures that seek to benefit from these violations, are arrested and prosecuted. We believe the work of the proposed Commission will help in this regard.
“The Commission is required to prosecute electoral offenders. However, the Commission’s incapacity to arrest offenders or conduct investigation that leads to successful prosecution of especially the high-profile offenders, led to the suggestion to unbundle the Commission and assign some of its extensive responsibilities to other agencies as recommended by the Uwais and Nnamani Committees.”
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