INEC secures conviction of electoral offenders

Worries about insecurity as IGP assures massive deployments for by- elections

THE Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) has secured con viction of three electoral offenders, caught during the 2023 general elections.

Its Director of Voter Education and Publicity , Mar y Nkem, made the revelation at a roundtable for the media and Civil Society Organisations ( CSOS) on ‘ Re- examining the role of critical stakeholders in rebuilding trust in the electoral processes and institutions’, organised by the International Press Council ( IPC) under the European- Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria ( EU- SDGN II) project.

Nkem, who admitted that the commission is handicapped in terms of arrest and prosecution of electoral offenders, assured that the forthcoming reruns and byelections would be free and fair.

Her words: “It will interest you to know that most of the policies that were used for the 2023 elections emanated from the review we had of the 2019 general elections. I stand here to let y ou know that for the 2023 general elections, all the reports and recommendations that have been harvested, the commission will look at them critically, and implement the key ones.

“On prosecution of electoral offenders, the commission does not have the power to arrest. Election is a multistakeholder programme. If INEC plays its side and another stakeholder fails, there will be an issue. We don’t arrest and investigate. There are organisations that do that. We only prosecute those found culpable when we receive the files. We partner with the EFCC and ICPC. “It will interest you to know that for the 2023 general elections, we received some case files of electoral offenders and they have been prosecuted and as we speak, about 19 case files were prepared for prosecution and filed for various jurisdiction of courts in Nigeria, three have been completed and convictions secured for the three of them.”

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EANWHILE the electoral umpire has expressed worry about insecurity and threats of violence ahead of the February 3 by- elections.