The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the increasing cases of impunity and unlawful acts before and during elections.
NHRC stressed that electoral impunity would not stop until INEC, its official and the various security agencies involved in the conduct of elections avoid being partial.
The Commission suggested the prompt establishment of electoral crimes court to try election offenders.
It also called on the election tribunals to always deploy the powers under Section 146 of the Electoral Act 2010 to recommend cases of electoral infractions for the necessary agencies for investigation and prosecution.
These were contained in a report released in Abuja on Wednesday by NHRC on its study of cases relating to the 2015 general election.
The report is titled: “An independent study of the 2015 general election petition cases for evidence of gross violations of rights to participate in government, to public service and fair election (phase two: Final report).”
The report, similar to a report released in 2016, is the final phase of the NHRC’s “end electoral impunity” project launched in 2013.
The report presents 35 cases of indictments involving INEC, its officials, politicians, lawyers, tribunals and the Nigeria Police Force.
The 35 cases featured in the report were broken to include: 11 instances of criminal indictment, 14 criminal/administrative indictment, four administrative and six professional indictment.
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