By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – FORMER Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen (rtd) on Sunday said this is the best time for Nigeria to establish a special body to check electoral offences.

 Besides, he lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for detecting cases of fake and double registration as he described as worrisome the discovery of over one million of such a category of potential voters.

  In an interview with Vanguard in Benin City, Ikponmwen said the Electoral Act 2022 gave elaborate actions that are termed election offences and that it would be difficult for the existing security agencies to carry the roles expected of them on electoral offences.

  He said “For how long have we been worried about malpractices in elections? For so long, we have known so many actions that are untenable, unacceptable in an election yet we didn’t have a law that can bite.

 We must applaud the present government for coming out with Electoral Act 2022, the Act has come out and enumerated so many actions that have now been rendered criminal in terms of elections, they are very many ranging from disorderly behavior at political meetings, improper use of voters cards, improper use of vehicles, impersonation and voting by unqualified people, dereliction of duties, bribery and conspiracy, requirement of voting in secrecy not being upheld, wrongful voting and forged statements, voting by unregistered persons, disorderly conduct at elections and so many others. 

Nothing can be more explicit but it is now a matter of can the law enforcement agencies deal with these offences? It is an herculean task especially as the law is just being made and elections are few months away so I think very honestly that beyond applauding the government for coming out with this electoral Act, we need to do more because the law enforcement agencies without any apologies to anybody have proved weak and grossly inefficient in this country.

   “I believe that the establishment of a special body to deal with electoral offences will be a plus for this country, it will aid eradication of electoral offences, it will aid the apprehension of electoral offenders and their prosecution.”