National commissioner and chairman of information and voter education of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Barr. Festus Okoye, has said unless the National Assembly (NASS) passes the bill for an Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal, impunity during elections would persist.
Okoye spoke in Abakaliki, the state capital yesterday at training organised for journalists in collaboration with the INEC with the theme: ‘Conflict Sensitive Reporting and 2023 General Elections.”
He said the commission is yet to be effected with the capacity to arrest electoral offenders adding that the Chairman of the Commission went before the both Houses of the National Assembly and pleaded with them to give effect to the bill before them for the creation of Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal.
“The bill will enable the commission to have the power to commence investigation, have the power to arrest electoral offenders and also have the power to prosecute them. We believe that unless we have such a commission, the impunity will continue to pester and people will continue to recycle electoral offences because there is no sanction.”
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