A former Federal Commissioner of Information Chief Edwin Clark yesterday called for severe sanctions for perpetrators of electoral offences.
Revewing the cancelled River state by-election owing to violence, Clark told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that โwhat happened in Rivers has been going on in many places; and people perpetrate violence in elections and we have it over and over because there are no sanctions.
โThat is why Uwais report suggested that there should be special courts so that anybody who misbehaves during elections is arrested and dealt with.
โWe are yet to have that. But I learnt there is a bill on that at the National Assembly, and I believe once this bill is passed into law, it would reduce cases of violence in elections.
โI mean when you send people to 10 years imprisonment for perpetrating violence in elections, they will not repeat it again and others will learn.
โSevere punishment for offenders. That is what I believe will end the cycle of election violence in the countryโ.
Clark said the heavy security deployed during elections would have been needless if people obeyed electoral laws.
The elder statesman said the high security vote for the 2019 elections by INEC could be better used for infrastructure, if violence was not part of elections.
Clark urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that all relevant laws to check electoral offences are ready ahead of 2019, to ensure the elections are free and fair.
