Imported User:
Some politicians on Thursday in Lagos expressed diverse views on the Federal Government’s approval of the establishment of a Special election Offences Tribunal.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the establishment as a step to check election violence.
The tribunal is to try cases of election violence.
The approval followed the recommendations of the Sheik Ahmed Lemu-led Presidential Panel on the 2011 Election Violence and Disturbances.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had hailed the approval.
In an interview with NAN in Lagos, the National Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said that the establishment would reduce election violence.
“The INEC needs a special court to try cases of election violence,” he said.
Musa, however, urged that the tribunal should try cases of violence arising from the 2011 elections to stop perpetrators from being violent during the 2015 polls.
“If it will start with the next elections, it does not make sense; it should start with previous elections,” he said.
A chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change, Mr David Aghanya, also hailed the planned establishment.
“INEC needs a special court to hasten up crucial legal issues; in fact, we advocate that the EFCC and ICPC should also have special courts,” he said.
He said that cases of election offences and economic crimes lingered in the regular court because of many other pending cases.
“If we have a special court for INEC, cases will be disposed of fast; this will help the system,” he said.
However, the National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Party, Mr Damian Ogbonna, told NAN that there was no need for such special courts.
Ogbonna said that the regular courts should be able to accommodate all cases.
“It is unnecessary; our regular court system is okay; the investigators and prosecutors are still the same Nigerian police,” he said.
