3 weeks ago
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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the recently nominated president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, to prioritise the effectual prosecution of those liable for electoral offences.
SERAP listed the crimes to see violence, bribery, vote-buying, conspiracy and undue power during the wide elections and off-cycle election.
Last week, President Bola Tinubu nominated Amupitan arsenic the caller INEC seat who was approved by the Council of State. The nominee, pending confirmation by the Senate, volition win Mahmood Yakubu, who near the presumption past week, up of the authoritative expiration of his 2nd word of 5 years.
However, SERAP, successful a connection signed by its lawman director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said “Impunity for past electoral offences is simply a large obstruction to escaped and just elections successful Nigeria. Mr Amupitan indispensable show that INEC nether his ticker would not tolerate electoral offences successful the country’s elections.
“Unless the bequest of impunity for these sedate electoral offences is combated and perpetrators, particularly high-ranking politicians and their sponsors are efficaciously prosecuted and voters provided with entree to justice, those contemplating electoral crimes volition consciousness unconstrained successful aboriginal elections.”
The radical lamented that unit and different infractions person marred the nation’s elections since 2015, urging Amupitan to “ensure that immoderate betterment of the Electoral Act includes provisions for the timely prosecution of electoral offences and entree of voters to justness and effectual remedies for violations of their cardinal rights.”
“The wide elections and off-cycle elections conducted since 2015 person been characterised by sedate electoral offences, including violence, bribery, vote-buying, conspiracy, and undue influence, making a mockery of INEC.
“High-ranking politicians and their sponsors are seldom brought to justness for electoral offences, reinforcing a civilization of impunity for violations of Nigerians’ antiauthoritarian rights.
“There cannot beryllium a just electoral process if the assemblage managing the electoral process fails to guarantee the effectual probe and prosecution of electoral offences and entree of voters to justness and effectual remedies.
“No close is much precious successful a antiauthoritarian nine than that of having a dependable successful the predetermination of those who govern the citizens, and different rights, adjacent the astir basic, are illusory if unresolved electoral offences are not thoroughly investigated and prosecuted, and voters are not provided with entree to justice.”
It wants the commission’s main to “prioritise the amendment of the Electoral Act 2022 to guarantee the behaviour of escaped and just elections successful 2027, successful conformity with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the country’s planetary obligations.”
The organisation besides urged him to “ensure that immoderate betterment of the Electoral Act includes provisions for the timely prosecution of electoral offences and entree of voters to justness and effectual remedies for violations of their cardinal rights.”
English (US) ·