The Federal Government has promised to establish a permanent electoral tribunal that will address issues relating to electoral fraud and offences such as vote buying.
Special Adviser to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mohammed Kuna, stated on Tuesday that the Federal Government had proposed a bill for the establishment of the tribunal.
Kuna said this in Calabar, Cross River State, while delivering a keynote address on a training organised for INEC legal and Police officers on prosecution of election offences.
He said, “This is a welcome development to the Commission because it would mean that some of the cases we have been seeing of electoral fraud and offences would be addressed by a separate body that would be fully staffed and funded to address the issue of electoral offences.”
The training was organised by INEC, in collaboration with the European Centre for Electoral Support within the context of Component One of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria.
Kuna said there was the need to collectively address the problems of “electoral impunity,” which has become so much in the system, by ensuring that electoral offenders are diligently prosecuted.
According to him, to move the democratic process forward, it must be ensured that those who break the law are brought to book, and this, he said, was part of what the training programme sought to address.
