Members of the opposition All
Progressives Congress in the
Senate, on Tuesday, raised alarm of
a fresh plot by the Peoples
Democratic Party to postpone the
forthcoming general elections
slated for March 28 and April 11.
The senators, who walked out of
the plenary to address the National
Assembly correspondents in the
Senate, alleged that the Presidency
in collaboration with the ruling PDP
were planning to arm-twist the
electoral umpire in the country to
canvass fresh postponement using
the card reader as an excuse.
Their reaction followed the
submission of the Senate Leader,
Victor Ndoma-Egba, while moving a
motion for the summoning of the
Chairman, Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru
Jega, over the planned use of the
card reader for the election.
Ndoma-Egba had argued that the
use of card readers would
contravene Section 52 of the
Electoral Act which prohibits the
use of electronic device during
election.
But the senators, led by their
leader, Senator George Akume,
insisted at the news conference
that anything short of conducting
the elections as scheduled, and
using the card reader to avoid
rigging, might lead to a civil war.
They argued that since the card
reader was just meant for the
accreditation of the voters, its
usage would not constitute a
breach of the electoral act as
postulated by the senate leader.
The opposition senators alleged
that the PDP leadership having
failed to use the security
challenges and poor collection of
Permanent Voter Cards as excuses
to postpone the polls again, had
started a fresh plot by hiding under
the card reader usage.
Akume said, “Elections must be
held as rescheduled, it is important
that the Independent National
Electoral Commission must do this
in order to avoid unpleasant
consequences.
“Nigeria is a huge and complex
society, culturally, structurally, and
all hands must be on the deck to
avoid the Somalia experience.
There would be too many warlords
in this country should we fail to do
what is right.
“Nigerians deserve the best. Card
readers will add value to the
conduct of the elections; we are
talking about free and fair
elections. Time has passed when
people carry ballot boxes and
papers to their respective rooms,
thumb-print and bring them for
counting the following day.
“The whole world is watching this
country. We have become a
laughing stock, we are becoming a
banana republic.
“We are even more patriotic than
those who are in government. We
want elections and card readers
must be applied, they must be
used, otherwise, the elections can
never be free and fair.
“If a country like Ghana can get it
right, using the card reader, why
can’t the giant of Africa do it? If
Sierra Leone can do it, even Liberia,
why can’t Nigeria do it? We are
waiting for INEC to do it, INEC must
use it.
“Card readers are a must to ensure
free, credible and acceptable
elections. To do otherwise, won’t
be acceptable.”
The opposition senators further
alleged that the APC
representatives, former Heads of
State and the former Chief Justices
who attended the National Council
of State meeting where the issue of
election postponement was
discussed, strongly opposed the
idea.
Akume said, “From the records, we
know that all the former Heads of
State supported the holding of the
election as scheduled. Former Chief
Justices, those who know the law
also supported the holding of the
elections.
“But INEC later said the elections
could not hold on the flimsy
grounds that the service chiefs said
they could not provide security.
Security for what?
“We have over 774 local
government areas in this country
and serious security breaches in
the North-East are registered in
only 14 local governments and
therefore, there was no reasonable
grounds to shift the elections.
“We recall that in 1999, there was
no election in Bayelsa during the
first round of voting, elections were
later held.
“Under normal circumstances, we
believe the situation is also normal
now, these affected areas should
have been isolated for the purpose
of holding elections at a later date
but this was not to be.
“We are all learned people,
educated people to know that
elections have been held in
Columbia, which is perpetually at
war with itself, elections have been
held in Egypt, in Afghanistan, in
Iraq, in Syria, in Pakistan, in Mali,
Tunisia and other countries.
“Nigeria cannot be an exception.
The reason was lack of adequate
distribution of PVCs, later, it turned
to be inability to provide security
cover and we wonder that the
multi-national force that has been
assembled to fight Boko Haram is
just 7,000, including the Nigerian
troops and we have a troop level of
over 100,000 in this country.
“Why is it not possible to hold
elections with adequate security
cover for those who are supposed
to do their jobs constitutionally?
We believe that there is serious
manipulation and a deliberate
attempt to undermine and to
manipulate the democratic
institutions and structures.”
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
