By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has ascribed the agonizingly slow prosecution of electoral offences to lack of tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the dispensation of cases
Yakubu said this on Friday at the first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media in Abuja.
He said a major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals and were also not accorded priority, thus the delay leading to cases that are carried over from one general election to another.
“Judicial and legislative action in the last few days underscore our effort to deal with offences involving officials of the Commission assigned to carry out designated responsibilities. However, it also highlights the challenges we face in dealing with electoral offences.
“The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point. The commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election.
“In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court,” he said.
The INEC boss noted that through INEC’s collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted.
He said, “So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi states while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara and Gombe states. Yet, many cases are still pending.
“A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals.
“Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed.
“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases.
“It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”
He urged the media to join in the advocacy for the good of the nation’s electoral democracy.
