20th February, 2019
Mr Daniel Agada, a constitutional lawyer and public affairs analyst, says ballot box snatching is an offence under the country’s laws.
Agada disclosed in Abuja that death was definitely not the prescribed penalty.
He said that Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (amended) provides for derogation from the right to life.
“Very worrying is the fact that such a blanket directive may be selectively misapplied by some of our overzealous law enforcement agents in contrivance with agents of the government.
“Some trigger-happy law enforcements agents in Nigeria may even kill innocent Nigerians and accuse them wrongly of ballot box snatching. There exist a plethora of instances in this regard,’’ he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday warned those planning to snatch ballot boxes during the elections should avoid such act as anybody or group caught doing that would be seriously dealt with by security agents.
He advised that the president should have directed all security agencies to apprehend all electoral offenders and deal with them according to the law.
“You can talk tough without necessarily endangering the lives of your subjects,” he said.