A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Rotimi Jacobs, on Tuesday said there was the need to grant the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to investigate electoral offences, to address the problem effectively.

Jacobs made the statement while facilitating a session at the two-day training for INEC legal officers and police officers in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training, which began on Monday, was organised by INEC with support from the European Union’s Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).

The lawyer said allowing the police to investigate electoral offences while restricting INEC to prosecution would not achieve much.

Jacobs explained that dealing with electoral offences successfully required tight co-ordination from the process of investigation to prosecution.

“We cannot really achieve much if the only thing INEC does is to prosecute electoral offences and lacks the power to investigate cases.

“We cannot do much when the police is saddled with investigation and INEC takes care of prosecution.

“Successful prosecution of electoral offences will require that INEC is the prosecuting and the investigative agency.

“Giving the agency the power to also investigate would ensure better co-ordination needed to address the problem,’’ he said.

Jacobs suggested that INEC could be empowered by the law to set up its department for the purpose of investigating electoral offences.

He said that with this, the commission would be able to handle cases from the beginning to the last day in court.

The lawyer described the problem of electoral malpractices as threat to democracy, as it undermined the credibility of elections.

He urged all stakeholders to take the necessary steps to ensure that the problem was kept at bay.

Earlier, the Chairman, INEC Legal Services, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, said even the function of prosecution of electoral offences was a burden on the commission.

She explained that the commission did not have the capacity to prosecute all cases in all parts of the country at the same time.

Agbamuche-Mbu said the function would be better handled by a special commission for electoral offences.

She explained that a bill for the establishment of the commission was receiving attention at the National Assembly, and if eventually established, it would relieve INEC of the prosecutorial function and allow the commission to focus on its core functions.

The official said the commission in the mean time would do its best to deal with the problem of electoral malpractices.

“This training for our judicial officers and police officers is part of our efforts to ensure we do our best in the prosecution of cases,’’ she said.

Agbamuche-Mbu urged the beneficiaries of the training to apply what they had learned to their jobs, to achieve the commission’s objective.

He thanked ECES for supporting the training, urging the centre to continue to partner INEC in efforts to improve its competencies. (NAN)

Jul. 31, 2018 @ 17:45 GMT |