Establish Electoral Offenders Tribunal – TMG, CISLAC Task 10th Assembly
The Transition Monitoring Group, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and the Kano State Civil Society Elections Situation Room, on Sunday in Kano tasked 10th National Assembly to prioritise legislation to establish the electoral offenders tribunal/commission.
Our correspondent reports that the Commission would take away the burden from INEC and ensure adequate and timely prosecution of electoral offenders in Nigeria.
Reacting to the spate of violence that characterised the gubernatorial elections in Kano, the Chairman, Transition Monitoring Group and convener, Kano Civil Society Elections Situation Room, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya, argued that part of post mortem activities of the 2023 general elections, INEC should begin to prioritise collaboration with security agencies to protect voters from political thugs in future elections.
According to him, henceforth, all INEC accredited observer groups must undergo security screening to ensure their authenticity, so as to avoid partisanship As part of post mortem activities of the 2023 general elections, INEC must begin to prioritise collaboration with security agencies to protect voters from political thugs in future elections by INEC accredited observers.
He said, “We recommend that all accredited observers should learn and strictly adhere with INEC guidelines on observers operations, to appreciate their limitations as observers, which is only to observe and make recommendations.”
Also, Waiya observed, with dismay that for selfish and politically motivated reasons, some faceless groups in collaboration, with some willing elements in the media cooked up fake stories about civil society organizations calling for cancelation of the governorship election in Kano state and other parts of the country.
“We assure the public that we have neither at any time issued such statements nor been a party to such conclusions. We strongly believe in democratic approaches to settling elections disputes and encourage all who are not satisfied with the process to seek redress in the court of law.’’
“Very importantly also, we have seen how overburdened INEC can be and call on the incoming 10th National Assembly to prioritize legislation to establish the electoral offenders tribunal/commission, which will take away the burden from INEC and ensure adequate and timely prosecution of electoral offenders in Nigeria,” he added.
