ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the effective way to deal with impunity in electoral process was to prosecute electoral offenders as stipulated by law.
The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, made the observation in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Kayode said that the commission had always wanted to ensure that electoral offenders were prosecuted but that it lacked the capacity to handle such assignment.
He said although the commission had proposed the establishment of Electoral Offences Tribunal, the Federal Government which had the power to do so was yet to act on it.
He said that the proposal was in addition to recommendations made by Justice Mohammed Uwais’ panel and others.
“Those recommendations are out there; it is not within the power of the commission to set up the tribunal. What the commission needed to do is what it has done,’’ he said.
Idowu maintained that setting up of the tribunal was important as the number of election offenders was increasing while INEC had limited personnel and fund to prosecute them.
“For election offences, between 2011 and now, if you total just the electoral offences of multiple registrations, there are more than five million suspects.
“Ideally, there should be a capacity within the electoral system to ensure that even if you cannot prosecute the five million, prosecute such a number that will discourage other people from committing the offence in future.
“There are all manner of people that the police have arrested but the commission does not have an in-build capacity to handle the cases.
“Look at our legal department, how many lawyers do we have there? All the lawyers now would be engaged in elections petitions,’’ he said.
Idowu added that there were also pre-election petitions, including party registration and candidates’ nomination issues that the commission’s lawyers were still dealing with.
According to him, where parties are having issues on nomination of candidates, they include INEC; that means that the commission has to put a lawyer to the court, and how many are they?
“Now election petitions tribunals have commenced, lawyers would have to represent the commission in the cases,’’ he said.
He said apart from insufficient fund and personnel on the part of the commission, it was important to set up such a tribunal since INEC had no power to arrest or investigate offenders.
“In any event, the commission has been doing its best and will still do its best in bringing offenders to justice,’’ he stressed.
Attahiru Jega, INEC Chaiman
