Hard times await perpetrators of attacks and killings in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and other states during the March 28 and April 11 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) assured yesterday.The electoral body, which spoke through its Commissioner in-charge of Ogun, Oyo and Ekiti states, Prof. Lai Olurode, said anybody found guilty will not “go unpunished.”
Specifically, INEC urged the incoming administration to scapegoat perpetrators of violence during the elections as deterrents.
Olurode spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, while issuing Certificate of Returns to the Governor Ibikunle Amosun, and his running mate, Princess Yetunde Onanuga.
The National Electoral Commissioner said with the help of international organisations, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), those behind electoral violence that left over a dozen of people dead and scores of others injured “will surely be pursued and brought to book.”
Others who got Certificate of Returns include: Senators–elect Prince Gbolahan Dada (Ogun West) and Prince Lanre Tejuoso (Ogun Central). Eight of the nine elected members of the House of Representatives were also presented with certificates.
Noting that with the violence and associated killings that were recorded before and after the elections, Olurode said nothing has suggested that “politicians and political elite” have dropped or relaxed the mentality of “the politics of do or die.”
He urged the in-coming administration of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to scapegoat “some prominent electoral fraudsters and purveyors of electoral violence” to serve as deterrents.
His words: “For us in INEC, we feel frustrated by the harrassement, intimidation, maimings and the killings that attended the just concluded general elections in some states.
“We have always canvassed for an Election Offences Commission to deal with election security challenges in Nigeria. The country needs to make examples of big men who perpetrate electoral crimes.”
According to Olurode, despite efforts being made by INEC to ensure credible and fair polls, some politicians have made up their mind to “recklessly subvert the due process of credible and fair elections in Nigeria.”
“Unless such politicians are arrested, prosecuted and punished when found guilty, their inclinations towards electoral frauds may not abate,” Olurode said.
Speaking after collecting the Certificate of Return, Amosun said the victory belonged to the Gateway State and its people, assuring that his administration’s best was yet to come.
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