- Some stakeholders have called for an investigation into the alleged compromise by some INEC official on the postponed election
- The stakeholders said these staff should be identified and handed over to the Nigeria Police for further investigation
- According to them, some politicians including a former president of Nigeria connived with the opposition to compromise the electoral process
A group has called for the identification and sack of all staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who have contributed to the postponement of the Saturday, February 16, presidential election.
The group, Nationalists Front for Nigeria said the staff should be identified and handed over to the Nigeria Police to investigate the involvement in the logistics issue that led to the postponement of the election.
The group led by a former police commissioner, Abubakar Tsav, stakeholders, diplomats, clergies among many others alleged that former president Olusegun Obasanjo and some persons in INEC are in a conspiracy to scuttle the election.
Addressing a world press conference on Monday, February 18, Tsav on behalf of the group said such conspiracy is focused on a pre-determined outcome in line with the ex-President’s character and posture.
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He said those involved in the shady deal to snuggle the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into power through backdoor must be brought to book.
Tsav said: "We shall come to heaping our criticism on INEC but not before we attempt to alert Nigerians to the real dangers facing them as a people."
"The repeated defeat of the terrorists made the opposition, in this case the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to be faced with the prospect of going into an election it is guaranteed to lose to the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking re-election on the platform of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)," Tsav said.
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"Recall that prior to this, a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, cobbled together several alliances and coalitions that failed woefully like every other thing he has ever laid hands on. Even though Chief Obasanjo had in the past invoked God’s wrath on himself if he ever returns to the PDP (he tore his membership card to seal the curse) he has since fully returned to the PDP and is now its most popular gladiator, save the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Obasanjo had made it appear as if certain clerics captured in photo op with him and Atiku were instrumental to brokering peace between him and his former deputy but events have proven otherwise. What they did in Otta on the day they purportedly made peace was to further perfect their scheme against democracy in Nigeria," he said.
The former commissioner said INEC's compromised in the election process is so bad that results have been written in favour of the PDP before the election day while sensitive election materials were delivered to PDP chieftains in several areas hence the failure of the materials to be delivered to the right destinations and officials at a few hours to the elections.
He added that the logistics failure that prompted the postponement was therefore contrived by these people and not a natural occurrence.
"The evil that was planned against Nigeria by Chief Obasanjo and his protégés – Atku, Wike and others is beyond imagination. It was as if he has sensed that Nigerians will vote in a way that will disgrace him with his failed alliances and lying letter so he decided the only way to save face is to manipulate the elections by compromising the umpire.
"A last minute realization of the crimes that have been committed in INEC is what jolted its Chairman out of his lethargy to postpone the polls in the hope that remedial actions can still be taken to reverse the damage that the PDP, Obasanjo and Atiku have done to its credibility. Before now, there have been several calls on these men to desist from their acts that are capable of plunging the country into crisis but it is now apparent that they are not amenable to reason.
Instead of retracing their steps they have approached their western allies to mount undue pressure on INEC while unfairly accusing the government of the country.
"Our demand to Professor Yakubu and INEC as an institution is simple. The Commission must identify, sack and hand over its compromised staff to the police for prosecution before proceeding with the election.
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"A failure to do this would imply that INEC has no intention of doing the right thing which would greatly undermine its credibility like the western coalition and the opposition has been trying to do," Tsav said.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu, has warned that the call for the resignation of the chairman of INEC Mahmood Yakubu by the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, is unfair, unacceptable and may jeopardise conduct of Saturday, February 23 election.
Shittu said if the chairman of the umpire resigns, it would affect the conduct of the rescheduled general elections on Saturday, February 23.
Legit.ng gathered that the minister who spoke on Monday, February 18, with reporters at his Ibadan residence on the rescheduling of the general elections urged Nigerians to give the INEC chairman a benefit of doubt.
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Source: Legit.ng
