After elections annulment, offenders must be punished –Buhari

In from Timothy Enietan-Matthews . . .

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday administered the oath of office on the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud and five National Commissioners of the electoral body at the State House Abuja, calling for a review of the justice administration of electoral tribunals as one of the best ways of ensuring free and fair elections in the country.

According to President Buhari, it was not enough for election tribunals to nullify elections and order for rerun, those responsible for flawed elections should also be punished.

The five national commissioners inaugurated alongside Yakubu were Mrs. Amina Zakari, Mr. Solomon Soyebi, Prof. Antonia Okoosi-Simbine, Dr. Muhammed Mustafa Lecky and Alhaji Baba Shettima Arfo.

The President insisted that those implicated in flawed elections, be it individuals, political parties or security agents should be made to pay for their actions and inactions.

He said, “Another area of concern is the justice administration of the electoral tribunals. It is long overdue that our justice system addresses these shortcomings. It is not just enough for an election to be cancelled and a new one ordered. It would be much better if all whose actions or inactions led to the cancellation of such election to be investigated and if culpable prosecuted whether they are individuals as candidates or party agents, institutions such as political party, electoral body, or public officers as electoral staff or security agents.

Read also: Buhari helpless, not clueless – Bakare

“Similarly, perpetrators of electoral violence and thuggery should not be spared. Unless our system stops covering up all forms of electoral malpractices, we can hardly get it right. No system endures with impunity.”

According to the President, the change promised by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, must be all-embracing as far as electioneering was concerned.

Buhari further explained that the change starts from change of attitudes, change of work ethics, change in attitude to corruption and corrupt practices, change of party political conduct – right from primaries to the emergence of candidates and finally the conduct of elections, promising to keep his promise of respecting the independence of INEC by not interfering in its activities and by encouraging the body to conduct transparently free and fair elections.

According to him, he is ready to take the campaign of free and fair elections to the states, adding that the situation where ruling parties in the states win all local governments seats does not augur well for the country if that was not the people’s wish.

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