The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has given reasons why there have been inconclusive elections in the country’s recent electoral history.
One of the reasons, he said is what he called electoral impunity by Nigerian politicians.
Professor Yakubu who spoke at the official launch and public presentation of the National Human Rights Commission’s “End Electoral Impunity” Project Report, held at the conference hall of Commission’s headquarters, Abuja, asked Nigerians to put a stop to impunity in the system.
The INEC Chairman who was represented by the National Commissioner in charge of the Voter Education and Publicity Committee, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, said that electoral impunity has caused the nation a whole lot of setback in terms of material resources, development of democracy and human lives.
Professor Yakubu insisted that there is need for the country to establish Electoral Offences Tribunal (EOT), to be saddled with the full responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders and bringing them to book as deterrent to others.
The INEC boss decried the use of sophisticated arms by politicians to intimidate electoral officials, saying that such violence has made it very difficult for INEC to conclude six out of the eighty elections conducted by the Commission since he assumed office.
He pleaded with politicians to stop making elections do or die affairs. [myad]
