The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission have appointed 18 lawyers, including two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, to prosecute the over 200 suspects arrested for various electoral offences during the general elections.
The 18 lawyers are said to be legal officers of both INEC and the EFCC.
Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported that INEC had listed 200 suspects for prosecution while the EFCC and ICPC also said they were probing 78 suspects for financial inducement during the elections.
The report noted that the police had transferred over 50 case files of electoral offences to INEC.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, had told Saturday PUNCH in an interview, “The commission has received over 50 case files from the police authorities. There are over 200 accused persons set for prosecution. The commission has directed its Litigation and Prosecution Department to study the files and advise it on the prosecution. The department has since commenced action and as soon as it finishes, it will revert to the commission accordingly.”
Meanwhile, the two SANs are Rotimi Oyedepo, who is representing the EFCC, and Abdulaziz Sani, representing the electoral umpire.
The other lawyers from both commissions include Nasara Auta, Odinaka Ikoroha, Adeyemi Olufemi, Mahmud Tafarki, Ahmed Mohammed, Amaka Okwuaka, Enoch Akafa, and Temple Ukaegbu.
The others are Samuel Daji, Adaka Ekwu, Soare Adebayo, Arumemi Moses, Abubakar Aliyu, Ikhamaede Ramai, Andrew Akojn, and Khalid Sanusi Sabo.
The EFCC had in March revealed that it was investigating 65 suspects arrested during the polls, but did not give details of the arrests made during the presidential election.
This was as the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, revealed that no suspect has been charged to court yet, adding that investigation was still ongoing.
Uwujaren said, “No one has been charged to court yet to the best of my knowledge. There are some of these suspects that we’re still investigating.”
