Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against the Independent National Electoral Commission over its failure to investigate allegations of electoral violence and other electoral offences including bribery against some state governors and their deputies during the 2023 elections.
According to reports, the recently concluded presidential, national assembly, and governorship elections in some states witnessed widespread reports of voter suppression, voter intimidation and the destruction or theft of election materials by political party agents and thugs across the six geopolitical zones.
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare, Andrew Nwankwo and Ms Blessing Ogwuche, read in part, “Election violence is a threat to fair and representative elections.”
In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/583/2023 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja SERAP is asking the court for “an order of mandamus compelling INEC to seek the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate allegations of electoral offences against state governors and their deputies during the 2023 elections.”
SERAP is also seeking “an order of mandamus directing and compelling INEC to prosecute all arrested electoral offenders in the 2023 general election in the custody of law enforcement and anticorruption agencies.”
In the suit, SERAP is arguing that “By allegedly engaging in electoral violence and other electoral offences in so blatant a fashion, suspected perpetrators and their sponsors have clearly acted in violation of constitutional provisions, international standards and the Electoral Act.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
