Section 120
Dereliction of duty(1) Any officer appointed for the purposes of this Act, who without lawful excuse commits any act or omits to act in breach of his or her official duty commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
(2) Any polling official who fails to report promptly at his or her polling unit on an election day without lawful excuse commits an offence of dereliction of duty and is liable on conviction to maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
(3) Any polling agent, political party or party agent who conspires to make false declaration of result of an election commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
(4) Any person who announces or publishes an election result knowing same to be false or which is at variance with the signed certificate of return commits and offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 36 months.
(5) Any returning officer or collation officer who delivers or causes to be delivered a false certificate of return knowing same to be false, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a maximum term of three years without an option of fine.
(6) Any person who delivers or causes to be delivered a false certificate of return knowing same to be false to any news media commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years.
The term dereliction as used in this section simply means the deliberate or intentional abandonment of duty; therefore, this section specifically applies to staff of the Commission appointed to carry out election tasks or duties. It covers a gamut of improper conduct some of which include:
An act or omission by an election official without lawful excuse that is in breach of his or her official duties
Failure of a polling agent to report promptly at the polling unit on an election day
Conspiracy by a polling agent, political party or Party agent to make false results declaration
Announcement or publication of fake/false election results
Delivery of a false certificate of return
Note: By virtue of section 26, refusal of electoral officers, presiding officers, returning officers or security officials taking part in the conduct of an election to swear an Oath of Neutrality is dereliction of duty.
GOODHEAD V. AMACHREE & ORS (2005) LPELR-7463 (CA).
See also
UDUMA V. ARUNSI & ORS (2010) LPELR-9133(CA)
