The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has explained why those arrested for engaging in vote-buying during the recent governorship election in Anambra State have not been charged to court.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on elections, organised by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room on Thursday in Abuja, Chairman of the Commission, Prof Joash Amupitan, SAN, said whereas INEC is statutorily empowered to prosecute electoral offenders, however, security agencies that carried out the arrests have not submitted their investigation reports to the Commission.
Amupitan stated that the electoral body have been collaborating with the relevant agencies to secure the reports.
“I am happy to know that you are aware that some people were arrested, and people are saying, what have you done?
“We are reaching to the police. We are reaching to EFCC. We are reaching to all the other agencies. We will need reports on the investigations conducted in respect of those people that were arrested.
“Because the power of INEC is to prosecute, not to arrest. We don’t have that capacity for now.
“We are liaising with the law engineering agencies to ensure that those that were arrested will have their day in court,” he said.
According to him, to secure democracy, technological integrity must be matched by political accountability.
The INEC boss decried that poor telecommunication network remained the Commission’s biggest obstacle in its effort to achieve real-time upload of election results from the 176, 000 polling units in the country, some of which are located in remote areas.