Senate passes electoral offences commission bill, grants INEC power to prosecute

The Senate on Tuesday passed the bill establishing the Electoral Offences Commission, which empowers the nation’s election umpire to prosecute all election offenders.
The approval of the commission followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, while commenting on the bill, said, “This is yet another landmark legislation that this Senate has been able to pass, break the jinx, and the demons are defeated too here.”
Abubakar Kyari, senator representing Borno North, sponsored the bill in 2019.
Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Gaya, who presented the report, said the bill sought for the establishment of the commission and to make adequate sanctions for undemocratic acts in nation’s electoral environment.
He said, “It is also a decisive deterrence through efficient criminal prosecutions in the strategy for defecting electoral offenders.
“To this end, section 149 and 150 (2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) respectively vests INEC with the discretion and powers to prosecute alleged electoral offenders.”
He said since the advent of democracy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999, there was hardly any election that electoral offenses had not occurred.
Gaya also said, “Successive elections at the national, states and local government levels have been marred by irregularities, with political players resorting to violence to outsmart each other to achieve victory.
“No doubt, electoral offences remain a significant threat to credible, free and fair elections in Nigeria, where elections heighten political tension and trigger violence.”
He said the challenges facing INEC in the electoral process did not permit it to face another battle of prosecution of electoral offenders.
He said, “This accounts for just a few convictions for electoral offences in the realm of criminal litigation in Nigeria.
“The above underscores the necessity of an active justice system for the prosecution of electoral offenders, which remains critical in ensuring a decrease in the level of electoral impunity and a reversal in the persistent trend of electoral offences.”
Gaya explained that the commission will be charged with investigating electoral offences and prosecution of electoral offenders in Nigeria.
He said that the commission would help strengthen Nigeria’s electoral process and ensure credible elections.