The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has opposed the
bill seeking to establish the Electoral Offences Commission to handle all
electoral offences.
EFCC expressed its opposition to the bill on Tuesday during
the Public Hearing organized by the House of Representatives Committee on
Electoral Matters.
Deborah Adamu-Eteh, Assistant Commander of EFCC, who
represented the Commission said most of the offences listed in the bill are
already taken care of by EFCC and other agencies.
The Commissioner said, “create an agency solely to
investigate and prosecute electoral offences most especially when our electoral
process is seasonal in nature.”
EFCC posited that existing agencies should be strengthened
to prosecute offenders.
The Chairman of INEC, Yakubu Mahmood, in his presentation
said the reform of electoral offences will not be completed without the
electoral offences commission.
He stated that several committees on electoral reforms have
recommended the creation of the outfit.
“It has been part of all national conversations on
constitutional and electoral reforms for the last 13 years. The Justice
Mohammed Uwais Committee on electoral reforms recommended it in 2009, echoed by
the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu Committee following the post-election violence of 2011
and, most recently, by the Senator Ken Nnamani Committee on Constitutional and
Electoral Reform in 2017.
“Similar recommendations are contained in reports of police
investigations, INEC administrative enquiries, court judgments, reports by the
National Human Rights Commission as well as several accredited election
observers,” he said.
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