Reply #39: Nigeria: Why INEC Officials Go Unpunished, Nnamani Regrets Mistake in Electoral Law

[Mnemosyne]

Nigeria: Why INEC Officials Go Unpunished, Nnamani Regrets Mistake in Electoral Law

29 February 2008
Posted to the web 29 February 2008

Abdul-Rahman Abubakar

As Nigerians continue to react to last Tuesday's judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which confirmed the election of President Umaru Yar'Adua, former Senate President, Ken Nnamani yesterday canvassed a 20-year jail term or life jail for electoral officers who aid or abet electoral malpractices.

He said the National Assembly under him made a fundamental omission in the 2007 Electoral Act by leaving out punishment for any electoral officer who aids or abets electoral malpractices.

Speaking at a Media Dialogue on Electoral Reform in Nigeria organised by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Abuja, the former Senate President said: "I admit that it was a grievous oversight on our part not to have provided for adequate punishment for officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who declare phantom results with big figures from nowhere."

Senator Nnamani said: "the punishment for such INEC officials should be a minimum of twenty years imprisonment or even life in jail depending on the offence. It is unfair that today INEC resident electoral officers in the states where elections have been nullified are working freely in the streets while their victims suffer in tribunals."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802290579.html