Houses Passes Bill Seeking to Punish Electoral Officers Involved in Malpractices for Second Reading

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed for second reading a bill seeking to punish election officers involved in electoral malpractices.

The sponsor of the bill, Hon. Hassan Fulata, while leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, said it sought to amend sections 51 (2) and delete sections 51(3) and 51(4) as well as sections 84 (8) of the Electoral Act.

Fulata explained that the provisions of sections 51(2) (3) and (4) seemed to deliberately target legitimate winners of elections, instead of the criminally minded individuals, who connived with custodians of electoral materials to cancel their votes.

According to him, equally important is the need to punish the presiding officer, who allowed himself or herself to be used to perpetrate fraud and injustice.

Fulata added that even if it was presumed that the individual who added the votes was not known, the winner of the election in a particular unit could not be party to a deliberate act that would invalidate their votes.

He said, “Most of the time, candidates target the strongholds of their opponents, leveraging on the provisions of this section to add one or two votes to discredit the outcomes of the elections in those polling units.”

The lawmaker pointed out that this was to create an advantage for the losers.

Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ben Kalu, who presided over the plenary, put it to vote and it was unanimously passed.

The bill was subsequently referred to the House Committee on Electoral Matters for further legislative actions.