The Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, has called for the creation of a special court to ensure the timely prosecution of electoral offenders.
While speaking in an interview with BONews, Abiola Akiode, Chairperson of TMG, said Nigeria should emulate other countries by unbundling the Independent National Electoral Commission.
She stated that the country should create a commission that will see to the speedy prosecution of perpetrators of violence before, during and after the election.
She said: “The Transition monitoring group has consistently ask that there should be a law which will create electoral violence offences commission just as the way we have invested in EFCC and all of that.
“The duty of this commission is going to address electoral violence pre-election and post-election.
“In some countries like Liberia, on election day, if you are caught violating the rules of election, you will face a mobile court that will summarily give judgment to the offenders on that day.
“We are calling for the creation of mobile court that can deal with electoral violence on the day of election.”
Akiode also bemoaned that Nigerians do not trust the police and security agencies in ensuring peaceful election.
“Nigerians don’t trust the police; it will take a long time before we get to that time that Nigerians will trust the police,” she added.
The Chairperson of TMG also revealed that politicians are making people to take an oath to vote for them after inducing them with money and material gifts.
She noted that these politicians throw money at electorates due to the poverty in the state.
She expressed concerns that this will have an effect on the true outcome of the election.
“This is a state where majority of the people are living below poverty line. People are being asked to collect the money and they are being asked to swear that they will vote for them.
“So, there is a lot of things going on in the state, the inducement will affect the credibility of the election,” Akiode said.
She said TMG has set up citizens observations platform to enable Edo residents send live update of what they see at the polling units.
She said the platform will help in revealing “the kind of rot that we have in our electoral system. If we don’t find the root causes, we might not be able to resolve the crisis within our electoral system.”