The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC said it currently prosecuting no fewer than 774 electoral offenders in the aftermath of the 2023 general election.

INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Friday at a consultative meeting with media executives in Abuja.

The disclosure came as a former Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority NTA, Dr Tonnie Iredia hailed the conviction of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom, Professor Ignatius Uduk, who was sentenced to three years in prison for publishing false election results and perjury.

Speaking on an Arise Television breakfast show monitored Friday in Abuja, Iredia said the political class should stop appointing politicians to the electoral commission.

According to him, each time somebody who has some political lineage is brought in, civil society will raise an alarm and nobody will do anything about it.

“The Senate Committee on Electoral Matters will tell you that they don’t see anything wrong about the person, so he will be cleared and he becomes an election umpire. At the end of the day, he embarrasses all of us.

“I think we should be able to follow the rules of the game because the election is based on rules. The Nigerian constitution says that anybody who has had anything to do with elections should not be an umpire. We don’t even need a constitution to say that because it’s common sense.

“I think that we probably need to change our approach to INEC and perhaps other agencies that are involved in the conduct of elections. We need an impartial election umpire.

“It is frustrating when people we consider credible, such as university professors, behave like political thugs and undermine the voting process.” He emphasised that those entrusted with conducting elections should prioritise national development over personal gain”, he stated.

Iredia commended the two judges who delivered the ruling in Uduk’s case, saying while fairness in judicial rulings should be the norm, it has become rare in Nigeria’s election-related cases.

“The two judges, I think that it is important to praise them, not because it is an extraordinary thing for a judge to do his job, but because we hardly find this type of situation in Nigeria. A lot of people, once it comes to election cases that are somersaulting. We need to praise these two judges and to expect that others will emulate them”.

Electoral offenders

Addressing the media executives, Yakubu called for their support in the area id electoral reforms.

“One of these areas of reform is the prosecution of electoral offenders. Judicial and legislative action in the last few days underscore our effort to deal with offences involving officials of the Commission assigned to carry out designated responsibilities. However, it also highlights the challenges we face in dealing with electoral offences.

“The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point. The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending”, he stated.

Yakubu explained that a major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals.

“Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed. No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases.

“Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases. I urge the media to join in this patriotic advocacy for the good of our electoral democracy”, he urged.