Observer Group Advocates For Electoral Offence Commission

By  Solomon Odeniyi

An observer group in the recently-concluded  elections, Kimpact Development Initiative has urged the Federal government to consider  the establishment of an Electoral Offence  Commission so as to curtail  the alarming rate of electoral crimes in the country. 

The group which monitored the elections in the  sixSouth west states of Nigeria described the cases of violence in the nation’s electoral process as disturbing and one in need of prompt interventions.

The Southwest coordinator of the group,  Bukola Idowu who spoke while addressing the media in Osogbo reiterated that setting up such commission with power to prosecute and punish offenders which the electoral body presently lacks would help avert issues of violence in elections.

Reeling out the reports from its situation room in the South west, Idowu noted that violence, intimidation of voters, potential violence, inadequate election logistics,  vote buying and poor security conduct and deployment to polling units characterised the  elections.

He expressed his dissatisfaction at how INEC strategically addressed the stated issues despite the postponement of the elections.

Despite the challenges encountered, he said the INEC must rise above board in subsequent elections.

He advised the electoral body to embrace collation of results electronically since the smart Card Reader could transmit results directly from Polling Units to the INEC situation room, adding that this would help confer more credibility on  the process  as the manual collation process was vulnerable to manipulation and human error.

On the various concerns around logistics which was responsible for the postponement of the elections, Idowu advised that the Independent National electoral Commission to engage logistics company  in the distribution of sensitive voting materials and equipment to every part of the country promptly and professionally rather than the NURTW  which has over time become tools in the hands of political class.

Idowu enjoined security agencies to ensure that credible security assessment is done so as to ensure that in subsequent elections considerations are given to places prone to violence. 

He called for the recruitment of more policemen in the country, saying  reports gotten from its situation room from the six south west states had it that places where polls were disrupted had just a security man present.

“Reports gotten shows that most places where polls were disrupted have just one security man in attendance,  whichmeans areas that are volatile were not taken into consideration during the deployment of security officers and this had gross consequences on the election”, he said.