 Welcome back. The Independent National Electoral Commission in Abuja on Tuesday called on electoral offenders to have a rethink during the 2023 general elections because their days were already numbered. The commission also expressed optimism that the spate of electoral offences, irregularities and violence would be brought to a halt after the enactment of the bill on the establishment of electoral offences tribunal. I'm glad to say we have joining us. Annex National Commission and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye S. Choir. Mr. Okoye, thank you very much for joining us tonight. What prompted Annex to make such a statement? Well, you know, the commission has been conversing for the establishment of an electoral offences commission and tribunal to handle the issue of arrest, investigation and prosecution of electoral offenders. Now, if you look at section 145 and 144 of the Electoral Act 2022, you will see that the Independent National Electoral Commission has been giving the power and demanded to prosecute electoral offenders. And the commission prosecutes electoral offenders one, based on report by its officers, two, based on reports and the recommendations by the Nigerian police force and also based on recommendations by election tribunals and calls of law when an election petition is being tried and the judges discover that an offence has been committed. It can be referred to the Independent National Electoral Commission for prosecution. But looking at the whole matter holistically, some of the electoral offenders are staff of the commission and I think it will be impudent and improper for the commission to also be saddled with the responsibility and task of prosecuting its own officers. That is not proper and that is against all the laws of natural justice. So we felt that both at the financial level, at the level of capacity and also at the level of prosecuting electoral offenders properly, that an independent commission should be established to deal with the issue of arrest, investigation and prosecution of electoral offenders in a much more comprehensive and strategic manner. Mr. Coy, you are a lawyer so very, very qualified in the best position to give us explanation regarding this. So with enactment of this law, of this bill, establishing rather an electoral offenses tribunal, how will this be different from what we've been having in the past? Well, I was a member of the electoral reform committee headed by the Honorable Justice who was former Chief Justice of Nigeria and in that particular Electoral Offences Commission, Professor Jega, who later became the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, was a member. The Catholic Bishop of Sokotodiasis, Bishop Maetru Hasankuka, was a member of that particular commission and Electoral Committee and there were other eminent Nigerians who were members of the committee. We did recommend for the establishment of this particular commission and we also provided a framework for its establishment. I was also a member of the 2014 National Conference and the committee on political parties and electoral matters, jointly headed by the former Senate President and the two former Senate Presidents, Senator Iyochia Ayo and Ken Nnamani, also recommended that we should have the political parties and Electoral Offences Commission and tribunal to deal with some of these issues. So what we are saying is that we need a commission modelled after the ICPC or modelled after the EFCC to be completely independent and check the Virginia Act of electoral impunity in the country and we recommended the framework for the appointment of such members of that committee. We recommended the membership of that particular committee and also we recommended on the ways and means to which issue function. Unfortunately, our report was not acted upon but the appeal that has gone to the National Assembly with the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has addressed substantially some of these issues. So we have made it very clear as a commission that one, we want to concentrate on organizing, undertaking and supervising elections that a separate agency should be saddled with the issue of electoral offences and electoral offenders and you realise that during elections there are some electoral offences that are committed on the spot. So we need a commission that has the capacity to activate a mobile court to deal with electoral offences that are committed on election day because on election day what we find out is that some of the police officers and some of the secret officers that carry out this arrest come from different states of the Federation and after the election they move back to their states. So when an electoral offence is committed it becomes very difficult to get them back to the state where they serve for them to give evidence. We lose evidence, we lose critical evidence and also we lose all the ingredients necessary to secure a prosecution. So we need a separate agency to deal with this issue. Okay. I know that in the past, Anek and you in particular, you've lamented how Anek is overwhelmed at times with the volume of litigation and volume of cases that the commission has to deal with and sometimes you wonder how the commission, I need a federal government, you know, is able to spend amounts of money in handling these cases. So you're saying that it is not just enough to enact or to pass this bill on the establishment of electoral offences tribunal. You're saying that an agency must be also set up as a vehicle to be able to implement the law is what you're saying and not Anek doing this because you have your hands full. Is what you're saying sir? Exactly. That is the point. Now if you look at the configuration of the commission, if you look at the things the commission does, we deal with what I call pre-election litigation. These are matters that arise on a civil matter before the conduct of elections. After elections, we also deal with post-election litigation. These are matters that go before the various election tribunals. Our legal officers are involved in some of these things and when we cannot cope, we assign some of them to external solicitors to handle. Now there's also the issue of electoral offences. So what we are saying is, yes, under section 144 and section 145 of the electoral act 2022, we've been giving the power to prosecute electoral offenders, but set up a completely different agency. That agency will recruit the requisite staff with the requisite S parties to deal with the issue of electoral offenders. That commission will also be saddled with the issue of investigation, with the issue of research. They will also be saddled with the task of prosecuting electoral offenders and that this is the only way we can break the cycle of electoral impunity in the country. And if this is gone, I believe that some of those who believe that they can commit electoral offences with some level of impunity and nothing will be done, we have everything. But I like has a legal department, Mr. Fesos-Coye, we have a litigation in the prosecution department that should be able to handle things like this. Do we need to set up another agency in an era where we have scarce resources as far as government is concerned and people have said we need to prune down the size of government? Now, it is this issue of pruning down that led the 2014 National Conference into saying, okay, rather than saddle this agency with the task of only prosecuting electoral offenders, let us add an additional responsibility to them in terms of registration and regulation of political parties so that they will have something doing all year long. Now, one thing we must realize is that our elections in Nigeria have been completely deregulated. They have been completely staggered. During the 2020 regional election, we are only going to have a government election in 28 states of the federation. In the rest of the states, we are going to have a staggered election at different times. As you are aware, in June this year, we are going to have a government election. In July, we are going to have the Russian government election. So our elections have been staggered. So this particular Electoral Offences Commission, we have something doing all year round. We have a litigation and prosecution department. This litigation and prosecution department also handle election matters. And I want to tell you that even before the commencement of party primaries, we have over 200 matters already in court being handled by most of our legal officers in our legal department. And then the moment you are done with party primaries, the cases will become higher. They have to be saddled with it. And then as we move towards the election and the election, election petition tributaries will begin to sit and people will begin to find matters. These same people in the litigation and prosecution department will be the ones that we handle some of these matters. So what we are saying is why not allow us to specialize? Why not allow us to take the quantum of cases we can handle, take the issue of prosecution of Electoral Offenders and give to a different agency, a different commission to handle? Because some of the Electoral offenders are definitely going to be our staff. So why do you expect us to prosecute members of the public? Prosecute political party agents to engage in Electoral my business and also prosecute our own staff who are also engaged in Electoral my practices. So give it to a different agency. Yes, I acknowledge the fact that we have scarce resources in the country, but this agency is also very, very key because it will help in sanitizing our electoral process and also send a very strong signal and a very strong message to those who commit Electoral offenses and get away with it, that Electoral impunity does not pay and that we must find ways and means of breaking the cycle of Electoral impunity in the country. All right. For now, this commission has not been set up. It is an idea that has been put forward by INIC and by stakeholders. Will this be implemented with the 2023 general elections? If yes, do you foresee this bringing down the level of Electoral offenses in the country? Well, as a commission, we plan and plan well. As a commission, we strategically engage some of the issues that we have been saddled with. So if we do not have an Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal before the conduct of the 2023 election, our legal prosecution and prosecution department, we still handle issues around Electoral Offences. And as of today, we are farming up guidelines and procedures for the prosecution of Electoral offenders and how Electoral Offences and their prosecution should be initiated within the level of the commission and who we have responsibility for handling some of these matters. And so we are taking it on board. As far as we are concerned, there is no Electoral Offences Commission Act in place. And since there is none in place, under section 145 and section 144 of the Electoral Act 2022, we will be giving that particular responsibility and we are going to proceed with that particular responsibility. But as you know, when the different agencies involved in arrests, different agencies involved in investigation, the only thing we get at the end of the day will be a report, for instance, from the police relating to the arrests they have made, relating to the investigations they have made. And then we will not go to court to prosecute. Sometimes getting witnesses and getting evidence becomes a problem. So you hear matters being struck out on the basis of lack of religion prosecution or on the basis of the fact that we can get the requisite evidence that will lead to successful prosecution. So we want a situation where somebody will be arrested properly, comprehensively and adequately investigated and also prosecuted very professionally and with some level of best parties. Yes, but Mr Koei, whilst that is not done, and of course you've rightly said the commission is not folding its hands and you've already been proactive. But do you foresee the level of electoral practices based on the enactment of this bill going down? If this bill is enacted and politicians, political talks, the sponsors of political talk rate, those engaging in electoral malfeasance, our staff who may like to connive or collude with politicians, we have everything if we have this particular commission in place. But if we don't have this particular commission in place, they will see think that it is business as usual and that at the end of the day, they can get away with whatever they are doing on the basis of the fact that the commission will be saddled with the task of organizing, undertaking and supervising elections and we will not pay adequate attention to the prosecution of electoral offenders. So I believe that if we have the commission, the level of electoral offenses being committed and the level of electoral offenders, we go down. I think I have that feeling. All right. Indeed, you are also sharing the same sentiments as the former INA commissioner, Tau Jaga, who also has said some things about this calling. I'm sure from his own experience for INA to be allowed to focus on electoral matters during the research and organizing elections. Ms. Soko, before you go, has a chief executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Bubamor Marwabin, interacting and cooperating with INEC or has even written to INEC regarding this talk of conducting drug integrity tests on aspirants seeking a contest for political offices come 2023. I guess you may have heard about that news. Well, you know, we have what we call the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security and it's made up of the heads of the different security agencies. We also have the heads of ICPC, EFCC, NYC and the other security agencies involved. So there's a possibility that at the next meeting of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security that we take place after the after the salad break, that there's a possibility that such maybe can pass before the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security. But you know, the NDLE and all these other agencies are separate agencies and they have their mandate and we will not interfere in relation to their mandate. But we are going to focus on our principal responsibility, which is to organize on the take-off, provide selection. All right. I would have wanted to ask what kinds of drugs you'd be testing for, but I wouldn't bore you with that. I'll leave that question for Bubba Marwab. But if this were to work and aspirants is found to test or test positive for banned substances, this would automatically mean that he or she is out of a race to electoral laws, have anything to cover that? Well, you know that the qualification to contest the election is governed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as a mandate. It has set out the qualifying criteria for people to contest various levels of offices. And it has also set out the disqualifying criteria on which people can be disqualified from contesting elections. So we need to interrogate the provisions of the Constitution to see whether failing a drug test means that a constitutional criteria. But I know that lunatics, certified lunatics are not supposed to be allowed to contest the election. And there are also other disqualifying criteria provided in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But in terms of failing a drug test, I don't know whether it's one of the qualifying criteria or disqualifying criteria. All right. All right. We look forward to that. I can guarantee you that a lot of Nigerians will be looking forward to that. First of all, Koei Esquire, thank you very much for your time. You've delivered ever so eloquently and we appreciate you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. All right. And thank you for staying with us. That's as a size of a package right here on Plus Politics. For today, we return to more from our entire team, reaching you live from our series in Victoria Landegos. My name is Kofi Betelz. See you tomorrow. Good night.