INEC prosecutes 200 election offenders

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that no fewer than 200 people have been prosecuted for election offences since its Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, assumed office. It also promised that permanent voter’s cards would be used in this year’s Ekiti and Osun states governorship polls, culminating in the  2015 general elections.
Revealing this in Lagos yesterday, INEC National Commissioner and Ag. Chairman of Information & Publicity Committee, Dr. Chris Iyimoga, said that the commission takes the issue of election fraud seriously and has always taken offenders to court when security agencies conclude investigation.
He stated that whenever the police make arrests and complete investigation in cases of election rigging or other offences, INEC does not shy away from taking those involved to court.
The commissioner, who spoke at a programme entitled, “INEC engagement with media editors on election time table,” stated that the prosecution of election offenders had never been so good, as under the chairmanship of Prof Jega.
He stated: “INEC is saddled with the responsibility of handling this. INEC can’t take full charge in all cases. If there is crisis and people report it, it’s the responsibility of the police to take charge. After investigation and documentation, we can then step in. If there is no such documentation of investigation, there is nothing INEC can do.
“INEC can’t investigate. We can mete out punishment. It’s the police that will investigate before action will be taken. Investigation must be carried out properly before prosecution. INEC has prosecuted over 200 people for election offences since the coming of Prof Jega. It had never happened before.”
On how election fraud could be stopped, the INEC commissioner stated that measures were being taken to frustrate the works of election riggers.
He revealed that the commission would use the Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections as test cases, adding: “Now, ballot papers would be codified. There would be more polling units and each unit will get ballot papers specifically meant for it and equal to the number of voters on the register.”