Stakeholders including the Independent National Electoral Commission have declared support for the establishment of a National Electoral Offences Commission.
At a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Electoral Matters, the National Assembly, INEC Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office said the proposed commission is long overdue.
All at the event agreed that the commission, if created, would further strengthen the nation’s electoral system with adequate deterrent and sanctions for electoral Offences.
Such Offences include Vote buying, Ballot box snatching and sponsors of electoral violence.
They say the Commission must be independent and insulated from politics.
The issue of Electoral Malpractices and Associated violence has been one that has remained Thorny in Nigeria following the seeming inability of the Electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, to be able to do something to stop the trend.
The Electoral Offences Commission was first proposed by the Professor Attahiru Jega led Independent National Electoral Commission through the Electoral Reforms Committee put in place by the administration of the Late President Umar Musa Yar’Dua.
