Bolaji Akinyemi, former minister of external affairs, says Nigerians can approach the international criminal court (ICC) to prosecute electoral offenders in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Friday, Akinyemi
described the promise of visa sanctions on electoral offenders by the
governments of the US and UK as “all noise that will not lead anywhere”.
There have been criticisms against the just concluded
elections in the country. Stakeholders, including foreign observers, said the
elections fell short of expectations and were fraught with irregularities.
Prior to the election, the UK and US governments promised to impose visa sanctions on people who try to undermine Nigeria’s democratic process.
On Tuesday, the British high commission in Nigeria said it
was collating relevant information about some Nigerians who engaged in
anti-democratic actions during the elections.
The commission said it was concerned by the use of
inflammatory ethno-religious language by some political figures.
However, Akinyemi said the visa ban threats have never been
applied and are ineffective.
“Every time we have an election, both the UK and the US
raise this prospect of sanctions against those who they suspect are guilty of
malfeasance and seeking to sabotage the democratic process. But then, nothing
ever happens,” Akinyemi said.
“I cannot remember any person being sanctioned in terms of
visa denial. We do hear from time to time names bandied around but we have
never seen these sanctions really applied. That is why I just think this is all
noise that will not lead anywhere.
“In terms of Nigeria sanctioning these people. There are
laws in our criminal code that are against hooliganism and breach of peace.
“You cannot tell me
that unless it is election time, you can break somebody’s head and you will not
be charged to court? That is assault. We should use our criminal code to
prosecute those who have done bodily arms to other people.
“The ICC is there for dealing with offences that border on
hate crimes and sponsoring election [violence] and agitation against the group,
not just the individual.
“It has been used in Cote D’Ivoire and Kenya. So we should
be careful that if we do not prosecute these people and US and UK do not
activate their visa sanction, the ICC is there. And there is sufficient
evidence on paper that can activate that.”
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