99% of 869,800 electoral suspects may escape prosecution

The majority of persons caught subverting the electoral process during the 2011 voter registration may go scot-free after all.

THE PUNCH gathered that over 869, 800 persons were involved in the manipulation of voter register used for the conduct of the 2011 general elections. However, the Independent National Electoral Commission has only prosecuted 200 suspects. The figure represents less than one percent of all suspects.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who spoke to our correspondent through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kayode Idowu, stated that the commission was overwhelmed by the number of suspects to be prosecuted.

“It is true that with regard to the prosecution of electoral offenders, INEC has disappointed many Nigerians. I promised Nigerians that we would prosecute electoral offenders. I meant it. The commission meant it and we have done our best,” the INEC chairman had said in Calabar last week.

Although Idowu was silent on the reasons why INEC had been unable to prosecute the suspects, THE PUNCH gathered that it was because the commission lacked the human and material resources to do so.

Findings also indicated that the commission was unable to take the offer of the Nigeria Bar Association to prosecute on its behalf because of the likelihood of what a source described as “conflict of interest”. A source said though the NBA was seeking to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with INEC on the matter, some of the lawyers involved were handling cases involving some of the suspects.

Idowu said, “INEC’s preoccupation is not to prosecute cases; its main preoccupation is to conduct elections. These are just matters arising from conducting elections.

“For the registration alone, you have more than 870,000 suspects. For God’s sake, how do you begin to prosecute 870,000, not 870 suspects.

“How does a Commission begin to prosecute this number? This is only for the registration exercise. You are not talking about suspects that were arrested during the elections because there were suspects arrested during the elections, they are also there.

“When you consider the fact that the Commission had to handle pre-election litigations, which are not of its making because parties could not sort out their nomination processes, they go to Court, sue themselves and join INEC and INEC has to be represented.

“If you remember, we had over 300 cases before the elections where INEC received orders based on nomination procedures in the parties.

“That is also now not taking into account the election petitions themselves. Elections having been concluded, there are petitions which INEC is a party to.”

On the earlier offer by the NBA to assist the electoral body to prosecute electoral offenders, he said that the commission was still working out the modalities for the MOU.

Our Correspondent gathered on Sunday that the legal practitioners had demanded for case files relating to a number of the cases, but the legal department of INEC was not cooperative.

However, Idowu denied the allegation, describing it as “unfair”.

He said, “When people are not prosecuted, you have to put it in context. The Chairman has always said, and people forget, that this is the first leadership of INEC that prosecuted electoral offenders at all.

“In the past, it happens and it’s ignored. There might be complaints here and there but it was never taken to court. But here we have a situation where the commission has prosecuted more than 200 cases successfully.

“But the Commission accepts that that number is actually insignificant when you consider the quantum of suspects involved.”

Speaking on the matter, the Second co-Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, Mr. Mashood Erubami, said only the prosecution of electoral offenders could serve as a deterrent to those who subvert the electoral process.

He said, “It is because of that that they entered into partnership with the Nigeria Bar Association. They have now agreed to assist INEC and they are in the process of starting the prosecution.

“I think they have signed the MOU. I was in Calabar last week and one of the election monitoring groups told me that they had agreed, including the little amount that INEC would pay. The token to be paid was the reason for the delay. But now, they’ve agreed.”

On the Uwais panel’s report, Erubami said, a return to the recommendation was exactly what the TMG would recommend in the new electoral reforms.

“The recommendation of the Uwais panel report is ultimately the solution to this problem. Electoral Offences Commission will be the one to unbundle that aspect of the work of INEC.

“It will be unnatural for INEC to be the one that will conduct the election, organise the order of elections, arrest and prosecute offenders.

“We need an Electoral Offences Commission as recommended by Uwais which should be the one to pick up this challenge. That will be the deterrent if a majority of them are convicted and punished because it was not done in the past, that was why it had become an issue now.

“We are of the opinion that once those people caught in the 2011 elections are made to serve as scapegoats, it will reduce these incidents.”