The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun has lamented that the police lacks power to prosecute electoral offenders.
Egbetokun stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Citizens Town Hall on Electoral Reforms organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Reforms.
The police boss, therefore, recommended that the Electoral Act should be amended to Granta police prosecutory power.
Egbetokun stated: “The first is on the issue of arrest at polling units. Section 5(1) of Electoral Act 2022 empowers the police to make arrests when an electoral offence is committed at the polling unit, subject to the directive of the electoral officer. It is our humble submission that the police should be at liberty to make arrests of suspects/electoral offenders who commit or are found to be committing electronic offenses in their presence.
“Now the issue of getting an Electoral Officer to instruct the police to carry out arrests has been a very controversial matter.
“Recently, we had a situation where the man who was to give the directive was the suspect. So, how do you expect the police to handle that kind of situation?”
“The second aspect is on the issue of prosecution of electoral offenders. By virtue of Section 146(1&2) of the Electoral Act of 2022, prosecution of all electoral offences is to be carried out by the Legal officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“This means that the police only make arrests when necessary, investigate and hand over to the Commission for prosecution.”
According to him, That will give us the ability to keep up on the successful prosecution of those cases, because in most cases, the police are left in the dark as to which of the offenders have been successfully prosecuted.
Egbetokun stressed that there was need for police personnel to carry arms on election day, adding that the era of posting security personnel for assignment without being was outdated, especially considering the fact that the society has become highly militarised.