He emphasised that electoral fraud posed a significant danger to the nation’s democracy and should be treated more severely than other crimes.
He stressed the need for urgent measures to ensure electoral integrity and rebuild public trust in the voting process.
Amadi, who made the call in Abuja on Thursday at the launch of a report entitled, ‘Election without Democracy: Explanatory Notes on the 2023 elections, by The Center for Public Policy and Research, emphasised the growing concern over the rise of electoral misconduct and suspected fraudulent behaviour during elections in the country.
He said, “The judiciary must penalise electoral fraud more than any other crime. So, it’s like, don’t put the death penalty on someone stealing money, put the death penalty on someone rigging elections. The elections failed because politicians deliberately rigged with INEC. Nigerians will vote simply and go home.”
He added, “It is those people who want to go to power because they want to steal, so they invest in bribing the court, bribing INEC, bribing security agents, and bribing everybody but if they bribe and the court cancels it and says go back, even if you have spent one billion naira. So, because there is no consequence for breaching the law.”
Also, a pro-democracy activist and scholar, Professor Udenta O. Udenta, maintained that the electoral process and the conduct of elections in the country lacked democratic principles and values.
He emphasised that INEC’s failure to uphold democratic norms was responsible for the failure, not political players, observers, or voters.
“If you plan to fail, not the political class, not observers, not the voters, but INEC itself planned to fail by not honouring democratic precepts, values and norms. We are actually building a democratic infrastructure that is devoid of democratic values,” Udenta said.
He underlined the urgency of addressing the pervasive issue of electoral fraud, which he said had hindered Nigeria’s democratic progress for years. Stressing the importance of credible elections in upholding democracy, he urged the judiciary to take a more active role in combating this problem.
