Leaders of Thought, Elder statesmen from four of the geo-political zones of the country, under the aegis of Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, Thursday, threw their weight behind Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, going to tribunal to challenge the result of the presidential election.
The elders and leaders said challenging the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by Atiku and the PDP was a welcome development against the backdrop that the results cannot stand the scrutiny of any self respecting court, calling on the judiciary to shun what they termed, the climate of fear that pervades Nigeria and do justice because the entire world would like the judiciary to do the needful.
They have, however, described the just-concluded February 23 Presidential, National Assembly and March 9, governorship, state Houses of Assembly and Federal Capital Territory, FCT Area Council elections as the lowest moment in the nation’s democratic history.
Rising from a meeting Thursday in Abuja at the Asokoro residence of Chief Edwin Clark, the leaders who lampooned the election process especially that of the Presidential election, said that the process fell below the minimum standards,
In a statement Thursday, by Yinka Odumakin for South West; Prof Chigozie Ogbu for South East; Senator Bassey Henshaw for South South and Dr Isuwa Dogo for Middle Belt, the Elders and Leaders said that the total subversion of the will of the people was traceable to President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment into law.
The leaders also challenged the National Peace Committee, NPC led by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to understand that justice is the foundation of peace.
SMBLF read, “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders met in Abuja on March 2019 to review the 2019 general election. The meeting also received in audience Atiku Abubakar.
“After exhaustive deliberations, we adjudged the 2019 eections as the lowest moment in our democratic history as the entire process fell below the minimum standards. The total subversion of the will of the people it represented was premeditated with the refusal of the President to sign the Electoral Bill into law, the undue militarisation of the polls, and intimidation of the electorates especially in demographics considered hostile to the ruling party and impunitous manipulation of figures to achieve preconceived ends.
“The President should bear a huge moral burden that it was under his Presidency that all the democratic gains we made over the years have been reversed when the contrary was expected from him having railed against alleged malpractices in the three previous elections he lost.
“We reject the declared winner still. We cannot accept the declared winner from the elections. We therefore, endorse the decision of Atiku Abubakar and his party to challenge the results in court as the elections result cannot stand the scrutiny of any self-respecting court.
“Towards this end, we call on the judiciary to shun the climate of fear that pervades Nigeria to do justice knowing fully well that the gaze of the entire world is on it.
“Meeting considered as very shameful the openly partisan role played by the military during the elections to the point that even the INEC indicted it in the administrative inquiry into the Rivers debacle. We cannot allow the unbecoming role of the military to go unchallenged.
“To this end, we demand a high power inquiry into the role of the military in the subversion of the democratic process so that all the culprits can be brought to book.”
