Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) has voiced concern over the increasing tendency of election losers to use bribery through court processes to overturn poll results, calling this a serious abuse that undermines Nigeria’s democracy.
Speaking at a retreat for the Senate and House Committees on Electoral Matters in Lagos, Aliero insisted that the practice of challenging election results and “influencing outcomes through illicit means must be stopped.” He lamented past situations where a loser “will go to court after losing the election, and then he will bribe his way and get himself declared,” arguing that such practices make a mockery of the electoral process.
The Senator warned that confidence in democratic institutions would continue to erode unless reforms are implemented. Aliero noted that lawmakers have already spent over a year and a half working to reform Nigeria’s electoral system.
He stated that the goal is to amend “everything that needs to be amended” to eliminate ambiguity, inconsistency, and discrepancies. “We have observed many loopholes in the Electoral Act 2022 and we are currently trying to block such loopholes so that there will be free, fair and credible elections,” Aliero concluded.
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