The Solicitor- General of Rivers State, Rufus Godwins, has called for a review the punishment for electoral offences, which coincide with the state criminal Jaws.
Mr. Godwins, who spoke on the topic “Election violence,” at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Voters Education seminar in Port Harcourt, said the punishment for electoral offences was not adequate to punish intending offenders election matters.
The Solicitor-General, who pointed out few years imprisonment lines for rape of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials, or murder during election, said the state Attorney General should in such cases, take over the matter to ensure appropriate punishment was meted out to such offenders.
Also, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Emma Ukala advised Rivers people and Nigerians to desist from acts that could violate the electoral act.
Ukala, while highlighting the 15 categories of electoral offences, urged Nigerians to follow legitimate means to defend their votes.
He appealed to the electorate to write petitions, if any, to 1NEC and ensure that electoral offences were prosecuted accordingly.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer in Rivers State, Anyarkwe Nsirimovu, has stated that intimidation and inducement of voters as well as INEC officials and security agencies, were part of the problems of the electoral process and democracy in Nigeria.
Nsirimovu, who is the director, Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, made the statement, while speaking at the seminar.
He stated that he had been an election observer in the country since 1999, identified hunger, poverty and unemployment as the reason why people fall prey to inducement. ###
