INEC Wants Decisive Actions Against Electoral Offenders

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s electoral umpire, has called for decisive actions against electoral offenders in the country.
Our correspondent reports that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Stakeholders’ Forum on Future of Elections in Nigeria, organised by a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja.
The Tide learnt that the INEC Chairman was represented by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee.
At the meeting, Yakubu said the commission was in full support of the establishment of Electoral Offences Commission to punish offenders.
His words: “It is time to take decisive action to break the cycle of impunity through the promulgation of an Electoral Offences Commission/Tribunal to handle matters relating to electoral offences.
“The commission has made it clear that it lacks the capacity and wherewithal to continue the prosecution of electoral offenders.
“And it is for this reason that the commission supports and will continue to support the creation of an Electoral Offences Commission/Tribunal to process, arrest, investigate and prosecute electoral offenders,’’ he said.
He said that INEC was set to design strategies to checkmate the act of vote buying and selling.
Yakubu said that vote buying and vote selling did not only undermine the cardinal democratic principles of representation, accountability and participation but compromised the inalienable rights of voters to free choice.