The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday fingered institutional? hindrances as reasons why??? the commission has failed to prosecute electoral offenders indicted in the 2011 general polls.
Jega made this comment in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, during a summit held with stakeholders and candidates for the February 11, 2012, governorship? election in the state.
He said though the commission had succeeded in prosecuting over 200 persons for various electoral offences, the commission’s progress in that regard had been?? constrained by the failure of existing courts to accelerate prosecution of offenders, the lack of an Election Offenders Tribunal, the non-availability of legal teams and the lacklustre attitude of police to investigate allegations against thousands of indicted offenders.
Jega told the gathering that the commission had set out to correct its record of failures in the area of prosecution of election offenders with two correspondences to the leadership of the National Assembly to revisit the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee report on the setting up of a Special Election Prosecution Tribunal to ensure quick prosecution of indicted offenders including the Senator in Bayelsa State who was indicted in the 2011 National Assembly election in the West Senatorial District of the State.
The INEC boss, however, said that the commission was ready to conduct free and fair governorship election in Bayelsa on Saturday.