The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) secured about 60 convictions for electoral offenders since the 2015 general elections.
Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at a one-day public hearing on a bill for an act to establish the Electoral Offences Commission.
He said the 60 convictions were obtained from more than 125 cases filed by the Commission against electoral offenders since 2015.
Yakubu said INEC, which is already over-burdened with responsibilities, would be relieved somehow when the proposed electoral offences commission is put in place.
He stressed that there should be an Electoral Offences Tribunal which will be saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting offenders as the courts in the country are over stressed.
However, he opposed some of the clauses in the bill which empower the attorney general of the federation to make laws for the commission.
He contended that such a provision will erode the independence of INEC which is supposed to be an independent entity.
He further said the public hearing was coming about four months after a similar one on the same bill was conducted by the senate on April 28, 2022.
Yakubu said the exercise was closest Nigeria has come to the passage of the long overdue National Electoral Offences Commission Bill into law and expressed the hope that the National Assembly will pass the Bill so that it will not suffer the fate of previous efforts which were inchoate at the end of the lifespan of the Assembly.
