Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has again voiced his frustration with the non-establishment of an electoral offences tribunal, several years after a committee inaugurated by the Federal Government made the recommendation.
Speaking on Tuesday night in Abuja during a debate on ethics and elections organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Jega argued that establishing the tribunal is crucial to sanitising the country’s electoral process and deterring people from committing electoral offences.
“I was privileged to serve in the Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais-led Committee and I know we made a recommendation for the establishment of a tribunal to deal with the impunity in the way electoral offences are being committed in Nigeria,” he recalled.
“We need to do something unique; and that is to establish an electoral offences tribunal, which will be saddled with the responsibility of arresting, investigating and prosecuting offenders.”
According to Jega, INEC discovered 870,000 cases of multiple registrations out of the 73.5 million voters registered in the lead-up to the 2011 general elections, but sadly, the commission has only succeeded in prosecuting 270 offenders till date, due to insufficient funding and inadequate staff strength.
