Senate okays 20-year jail term for Ballot box snatching

By Jennifer Ugwueke

The Senate on Tuesday ap­proved that any candidate or agent who damages or snatch­es ballot boxes, ballot papers or election materials before, during and after an election without the permission of election official in charge of the polling station will be sen­tenced to at least twenty years imprisonment or a fine of at least N40 million.

This is as the upper cham­ber passed a bill seeking to es­tablish the National Electoral Offences Commission.

The passage of the bill fol­lowed the consideration of a report by the Committee on Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC).

Chairman of the Com­mittee, Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano South), in his pre­sentation, said the bill became imperative in view of INEC’s inability to prosecute elector­al offenders in accordance with the provisions of section 149 and 150(2) of the Electoral Act (as amended).

“By the foregoing statis­tics, it is unrealistic to expect INEC to conduct free, fair and credible election and si­multaneously prosecute of­fences arising from the same elections.

“Indeed, INEC has at sev­eral occasions admitted that it lacks the wherewithal to cleanse the system.

“Its failure to prosecute even one percent of 870,000 and over 900,000 alleged elec­toral offences in 2011 and 2015 general elections, respectively, is an affirmation of the neces­sity for a paradigm shift on how we deal with electoral offences”, the lawmaker said.

The Senate in Clause 12 of the bill approved at least five years imprisonment or a fine of at least N10 million or both for any officer or executives of any association or political party that engages in elector­al fraud that contravenes the provisions of clauses 221, 225(1)(2)(3) and (4) and 227 of the 1999 constitution as amended.

It also approved ten years imprisonment for any person who sells voter’s card, or in possession of any voter’s card bearing the name of another person, or prepares and prints a document or paper purport­ing to be a register of voters or a voter’s card.

The Senate also gave its nod to a term of at least ten years upon conviction for any election official who willful­ly prevents any person from voting at the polling station, willfully rejects or refuses to count any ballot paper valid­ly cast, willfully counts any ballot paper not validly cast, gives false evidence or with­holds evidence, and announc­es or declares a false result at an election.

The upper chamber in Clause 20(2) approved at least fifteen years imprisonment for any judicial officer or of­ficer of a court or tribunal who corruptly perverts elec­toral justice, during or after an election.

It also gave at least fifteen years jail term or N30 million fine for any security person­nel or election official engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission or State Electoral Commission who attempts to influence the outcome of an election.

In addition, any person found to disturb the public peace on election day by play­ing musical instruments, singing or holding an assem­bly where a polling station is located shall be guilty of breaching electoral peace and liable to six months impris­onment or a fine of at least N100,000 or both.

Also, any person acting for himself or on behalf of any organisation or political party or candidate or his agent with the intention of prejudicing the result of an election, damage or defame, in any manner, the character of any candidate in an election or his family member by mak­ing, saying, printing, airing or publishing in the print or elec­tronic media false accusation on any matter shall be guilty of serious corrupt practice and liable on conviction to a term of at least ten years or a fine of ten million naira or both.

Any person soliciting or giving votes for or against any political party or candidate at an election, or found to affix campaign materials on any private house, public build­ings or structures, or prints posters and banners without the name and address of the political party to which the candidate or person belongs contravenes sub-clause (1) to (5) and guilty of an offence and liable to at least five years or a fine of at least ten million naira, or both.

The National Electoral Offences Commission Bill, 2021, prohibits any campaign against national interest.

It provides a twenty years jail term without option of fine for any person who prop­agates information that un­dermines the independence, sovereignty, territorial integ­rity, or unity of the federation.

The Senate approved at least fifteen years impris­onment for any person who conveys voters to and from the poll; and three years’ impris­onment for any employee who directly or indirectly exerts undue influence on a voter in his employ.

The upper chamber ap­proved three years and not more than five years impris­onment for any person who provides false information in any material particular to a public officer.

It also gave the nod for at least ten years imprisonment or at least twenty million nai­ra fine or both for any person who uses hate speech to stir up ethnic, religious or racial hatred, social or political in­security or violence against anyone or group of persons.

According to Senator Kab­iru Gaya, the National Elec­toral Offences Commission’s membership consists of the Chairman, Secretary and rep­resentatives from the Justice, Interior, Defence, and Infor­mation Ministries.

The function of the com­mission includes investi­gating electoral offences created in any laws relating to elections in Nigeria; prose­cution of electoral offenders; and maintaining records of all persons investigated and prosecuted.