Politics
By Kennedy Nnamani
PROFESSOR Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has described the National Electoral Offences Commission Bill as as a very critical legislation.
Speaking at the public hearing organised on Tuesday in Abuja by the House of Representatives committee on electoral matters, Yakubu said that “it had been part of all national conversations on constitutional and electoral reforms for the last 13 years”.
He therefore called on the National Assembly to speedily pass the Bill, noting that it is the closest that Nigeria has come.
“Coming about four months after a similar public hearing on the same Bill by the Senate Committee on INEC held on 28th April 2022, this is the closest the nation has come to the passage of the long overdue National Electoral Offences Commission Bill into law.
“I hope in the next few months, the National Assembly will pass the Bill so that it will not suffer the fate of previous efforts, which were inchoate at the end of the lifespan of the Assembly.”
While underscoring why it is important for the passage of the Bill, the chairman of the electoral umpires noted that the reform of the electoral process cannot be complete if there are no effective sanctions on violators of the laws.
He, however, decried the challenges that INEC has been facing in carrying out its duty, especially as it relates to the matter of electoral offences.
“At present, INEC is saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders under the Electoral Act.
“This has been very challenging for the Commission. For instance, since the 2015 General Election, 125 cases of electoral offences were filed in various Courts out of which 60 convictions have been secured so far, including the most recent one in Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
In the same vein, Prof. Yakubu added that “the Commission would like to see more successful prosecution of offenders, not just ballot box snatchers, falsifiers of election results and vote buyers at polling units but most importantly, their sponsors.
“We look forward to the day when highly placed sponsors of thuggery, including high-profile figures that seek to benefit from these violations, are arrested and prosecuted.
He therefore presented some comments made by the electoral commission with regards to 46 clauses of the Bill
“I would like to touch on two clauses and make a general observation while submitting our detailed comments to the Committee.
First is Clause 33 (1) of the Bill which confers jurisdiction on Federal, State and FCT High Courts to try offenders under the Bill. However, these Courts are already over-burdened. It is proposed that the Electoral Offences Tribunal be established with exclusive jurisdiction to try electoral offenders.
“The second is Clause 44, which empowers the Attorney-General of the Federation to make rules or regulations for the Commission. Conferring additional power to any other body may cause friction or conflict with the Commission which should be independent in the discharge of its functions even if doing so requires consequential amendment to other laws of the Federation to empower the Commission and guarantee its independence. In any case, Clause 1(2)[c] of the Bill grants the Commission power to make its own rules and regulations.
“Thirdly, because work on the Bill started before the passage of the current Electoral Act into law, all references to the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), for example Clause 39(1), should be replaced with relevant provisions of Electoral Act 2022,” he said.
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Tags: INEC Kennedy Nnamani National Electoral Commission Professor Mahmood Yakubu
