The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained the factors responsible for the delay in the prosecution of suspected electoral violators during the 2023 general polls
The commission, in a press statement issued on Wednesday by Sam Olumekun, its Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, detailed the plans “taken so far to ensure all culprits of irregularities witnessed during the last general election did not go unpunished”.
The statement identified constitutional immunity granted to state governors and their deputies; outdated status of the electoral laws, and inadequate personnel as the major challenges impeding the smooth trial of electoral offenders in the country.
The commission said the claims made by the Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), purporting that the electoral body has deliberately refused to to prosecute electoral offenders arising from the 2023 General Election is ‘false and inaccurate’.
INEC said: “Specifically, SERAP accused the Commission of failure to engage independent counsels to prosecute unnamed Governors and Deputy Governors for sundry violations of electoral laws.
“It also accused the Commission of failing to engage private lawyers to prosecute other electoral offences, including vote buying during the same election. These allegations are untrue and fly in the face of facts already in the public domain.
“In the first place, Governors and Deputy Governors have constitutional immunity from prosecution. SERAP cannot be unaware of this constitutional provision. In any case, the Commission has no record that anyone of them has been arrested, investigated and a prima facie case established to initiate their prosecution. ”
“Furthermore, if SERAP had done basic fact-check, it would have known that at the end of the 2023 General Election, the Commission announced that it received 215 case files from the Nigeria Police following the arrest and investigation of alleged violators of the electoral laws across the country.
“These include 52 files involving 238 alleged offenders during the Presidential and National Assembly elections and 163 files in respect of 536 suspects for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
“It is important to also inform the public that the Commission’s commitment to the prosecution of electoral offenders is not limited to persons who are outside the Commission.
“Indeed, officials of the Commission, some of them highly placed, have been affected, including a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) currently being prosecuted in a High Court in Yola.”
The electoral body said it also partnered with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) under the leadership of the immediate past President, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) to secure the service of many capable hands, who volunteered, to prosecute the suspected offenders across the country
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