Senate Passes Bill To Establish Electoral Offences Commission

Nigerian Senate has passed a bill to establish Electoral Offences Commission.

Gatekeepers News reports that the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday approved the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission, following the consideration of the report of the senate committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The bill was sponsored by the senator representing Borno North, Abubakar Kyari in 2019.

Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Gaya while presenting the report, said the bill sought for the establishment of the commission and to make adequate deterrence and sanctions for undemocratic forces in the nation’s electoral environment.

Gaya 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.”

According to him, there has hardly been any election that electoral offences did not occur since the advent of democracy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999.

He said, “Successive elections at the national, state, 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.”

Gaya explained that other challenges facing INEC in the electoral process did not give room for it to enforce 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 noted that the commission will investigate electoral offences and prosecute electoral offenders in Nigeria, adding that the commission would help strengthen Nigeria’s electoral process and ensure credible elections.

The 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.

“This is one sure way of keeping offenders responsible and accountable for their actions.

“We believe that this will sanitise our electoral system and process and we believe that INEC and States Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) will be able to conduct their elections free of violence.”