- Femi Falana said the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, conceded defeat after the 2015 election because he was afraid of the International Criminal Court
- Falana said Jonathan conceded defeat because ICC has threatened to arrest and arraigned anyone looking to cause trouble during the election era
Activist and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, said the fear of what the International Criminal Court (ICC) might do to former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, was the reason he conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election.
The Punch reports that according to a statement made available to journalists on Monday, December 17, Falana said this at the inauguration of the League of Anambra Professionals Legal Defence Initiative, held in Lagos over the weekend.
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He said: "Unlike in 1993 when the military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, successfully annulled an election, that is no longer possible.
“Whoever does that now will end up in The Hague. He is likely to be tried for crimes against humanity because if you annul an election, you are likely to have a monumental violence in the country which will lead to crimes against humanity.
“Before the 2015 elections, the ICC warned that if there was any problem in Nigeria, anybody who was responsible would be arrested and charged like former President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire. That was the atmosphere under which President Goodluck conceded victory.”
Falana said he is revealing this now to assure Nigerians that elections can no longer be annulled in Nigeria.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Falana chided the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari and his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, for abandoning reports to make the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) free from political interference and truly autonomous.
Falana, while speaking at the annual general meeting and conference of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, expressed doubt over the country’s ability to hold credible elections in 2019, as he stated that there is little or no public trust in INEC.
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Source: Legit.ng
