Tag Archives: Electoral Offenders

INEC lauded over prosecution of 61 electoral offenders

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A group, “Say No Campaign (SNC)” has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for successfully prosecuting 61 electoral offenders for various offences during the 2015 general elections.

Mrs Tracy Keshi, the Programme Officer, SNC, gave the commendation in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja.

`Say No Campaign’ is a platform of concerned Nigerians fighting against corruption, impunity and other governance challenges in Nigeria.

Keshi said that electoral offences remained a major threat to credible, free and fair elections in a country like Nigeria, where elections tend to heighten political tension and trigger violence.

According to her, an active justice system for prosecution of electoral offenders remains critical to ensure a decrease in the level of electoral impunity and a reversal in the persistent trend of electoral offences.

Keshi said that prosecution of electoral offenders remained an electoral reform issues that required addressing, especially considering the burden on INEC to deliver on a wide mandate.

She commended the commission for taking active steps to prosecute offenders.

Keshi also said such efforts, in the long run, would not only deter electoral offenders but also build confidence in the commission.

She stressed that the SNC was committed to electoral accountability and pledged continuous support to INEC as “it undertakes its work to guarantee credible, free and fair elections in the country”.

APC urges Buhari to crack down on electoral offenders

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The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Osun State, yesterday, urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to address the worsening problem of electoral fraud in the country before it destroys our fledgling democracy.

The party said in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Barr Kunle Oyatomi in Osogbo that, ‘if this was not done, the nation’s democracy which is already seriously at risk from massive corruption will collapse sooner than we imagine.

The APC was reacting to recent revelations by the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, that PDP chieftains had attempted to bribe him with N500 million when he was in charge in Osun State in 2014, so that he could rig the Osun governorship election in favour of the party.

Mr. Agbaje reportedly rejected the offer and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the people’s choice, won that election.

Although the APC admitted that electoral manipulation has been dogging the electoral system since independence it, however, claimed that, “since the PDP came to power in 1999, electoral fraud in Nigeria has escalated exponentially into a major crisis for democracy.”

The party said “except punitive measures are introduced and rigorously enforced against electoral fraudsters, this corruption will sooner than later kill our democracy. If those who try to rig elections have their way in whatever form, the corruption syndrome we are now addressing will only be suppressed, not eradicated.”