Jega: We Have Prosecuted Over 200 Electoral Offenders Since 2011

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega on Monday said that the commission has investigated and prosecuted over 200 persons who allegedly breached the electoral laws. Mr Jega, who was a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, accused Nigerian politicians of always seeking to ‘jump the gun’ during elections. He said INEC has done its best in checking this trend. “I want to say categorically, we have done or best. We have prosecuted over 200 people successfully,” he said. He said some of the electoral offenders, including members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) and INEC staff have been fined or jailed. “Before our commission was inaugurated, there was no record of a single successful prosecution of electoral offences,” Mr Jega said. He said though the number represents a drop in the ocean, the commission had reasons to prosecute about one million people over multiple registrations. “On registration alone, we do have evidence to prosecute close to a million people for clear cases of multiple registrations,” he said. He said the commission lacks the resources and personnel to prosecute all these offenders. Mr Jega said INEC is currently working on how to relinquish the responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders to another agency. He said, “We are partnering with the NBA (Nigerian Bar Association), in fact, we have been discussing this partnership and now we are taking it a level higher and our hope is that before we commence the process of continuous voters’ registration, which we hope will commence by the third quarters which is July – September God willing, we also want to make example of those who have done multiple registration. “We will do it, but it is very challenging. The best thing is to have another agency that can actually handle prosecution of electoral offenders.”