‘We Are Taking A Tough Stance Against Electoral Offenders’— INEC

• INEC has pledged to Take a tough stance against electoral misconduct.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that the commission is taking issues of electoral offenses very seriously.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Outreach and Partnership Committee, Professor Kunle Ajayi, said those who create problems would always do so even if you bring all the policemen in the world to that elections but in terms of trend, 2023 elections had a lower number of cases compared to previous elections.

Ajayi said this in Abuja during the public presentation of Nigeria election violence report on the 2023 general elections by Election Violence Monitoring and Mitigation group, the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI). KDI in its report had stated that a total of 238 violence and 28 deaths were recorded during the 2023 general elections.

“One thing you should know is that there is no way you can recorded 100 per cent when it comes to violence on election day. Those who create problems will always do so even if you bring all the whole policemen in the world to that elections but in terms of trend, we have a lower number of cases that occurred this year compared to previous elections and by implications, we’ll continue to improve on that and enhance conditions that we continue to make our elections peaceful,” he said.

On prosecution of electoral offenders, he said: “I can assure you INEC is taking the issue of electoral offenses very seriously and it won’t be like before that people will just commit offence and go away with it.”

KDI Executive Director, Mr. Bukola Idowu had during the presentation said, “In total, we had like about 238 cases of election violence, which is spread across the country, and not good enough and each of them have their perpetrators and then also the victims, which we have close to 900  victims, and the same time, reported 24 cases electoral death.”

According to him, this has proven to be one of the potent ways to mitigate electoral violence based on the findings that shows that the higher the presence of security forces in a community the lower the number of electoral violence recorded.

He also called on government to give zero tolerance to illegal proliferation of arms before, during and after the elections, saying recruitment of thugs and arming of thugs played huge contributing role in electoral violence recorded in the sample states.

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