- Safiu Kehinde
The new Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has called for the establishment of an Electoral Offense Commission.
Amupitan made the call during his screening by members of the Senate at the National Assembly on Thursday.
While fielding questions raised by the lawmakers, the INEC Chairman identified the issue of electoral malpractices as a major concern.
He noted that INEC currently does not have capacity to arrest, investigate, and prosecute election offenders.
However, Amupitan suggested devising internal mechanism to trail the behaviours while also seeking more collaboration with the legislative chamber.
As part of the collaboration the INEC Chairman proposed the establishment of the commission to tackle the menace of electoral malpractices.
“I think that is a major concern of everybody because one of the things that we have to do is to work out an internal mechanism that we can use to trail the behaviour of humans.
“One of the ways is to set up an ethical committee so that you can have an audit of what has happened because there have been several cases that have been reported.
“Some have been taken to court like Bayelsa state.
“There were some cases like that. And I believe in Adamawa, some people were prosecuted and convicted. We are going to follow the rule and pursue that cause.
“We are also going to work with the National Assembly because there will be need for some legislative intervention in some cases.
“For instance, there is a need for an Electoral Offenses Commission that will be able to investigate. INEC does not really have the capacity presently.
“You investigate and then prosecute and strengthen the internal disciplinary procedure following due process to ensure that those that are involved in such misconduct are brought to book.
“Even if we are going to use forensic to do that.” He said.
Amupitan also suggested the introduction of whistleblowing policy to detect and expose electoral malpractices.
“We can introduce a whistleblowing policy too to enable people to detect and expose such practices.” He said.
Prior to that, the INEC Chairman urged those who will work with to do so with the mindset of being in the commission on the basis of trust just as he was appointed based on trust.
“In the first place, I’m taking this position on trust and the people who I’m going to work with they must also appreciate the fact that they are there on trust.” He said.