A Bill for Act to Establish a Nigerian Electoral Offences Commission charged with the responsibility of prohibiting and prosecuting electoral offences in Nigeria has passed second reading in the Senate.
Leading the debate on the Bill at the plenary session of Wednesday, 4 March 2020, Sen. Abubakar Kyari (APC: Borno) explained that the Bill sought to make Nigeria’s electoral process credible by ensuring that electoral offenders are prosecuted and convicted accordingly. Sen. Kyari also highlighted electoral offences to include election rigging, electoral violence and manipulation, the disenfranchisement of voters, vote buying, disinformation, ballot stuffing, voters’ register manipulation, declaration of false election results, destruction or invalidation of valid ballots, tampering with election systems and voter impersonation.
Furthermore, Sen. Kyari noted that the Bill, if passed would aid in addressing the issues of inconclusive elections marred by violence across the nation while ensuring credibility in Nigeria’s electoral process by conforming with international best practices.
The Bill which was unanimously adopted has been referred to the Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who is to report back to plenary within 4 weeks.
