INEC Wants Special Court to Try Electoral Offences

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is again pushing for the creation of an electoral offence tribunal.

According to the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, the move becomes important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

Mahmood spoke in Abuja on Friday during the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media.

“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,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases.

“As a result, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to the next, which can occasionally jeopardise the meticulous prosecution of cases. It is therefore important to reaffirm our appeal for the establishment of the Electoral Offences Tribunal, which will have a particular jurisdiction and a fixed timetable for the swift resolution of cases.”

The INEC head lamented the delays in the legal system, noting the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years.

“The recent successful prosecution of a returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a prime example. The Commission has been actively pursuing the case that occurred as a result of the 2019 general election. In this instance, it took nearly six years to successfully prosecute before the trial court,” he stated.

“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.”