Kogi guber: We’ll confront oppressors with bravado to rescue our State - SDP’s Ajaka

“Today marks the 30th anniversary of the triumph of democracy in our country. This day 30 years ago Nigerians from all backgrounds defied all divisive cleavages and spoke in one voice to endorse democracy. It was a day that we became one people despite of our differences of ethnicity, class, ideology and religious persuasions.

“On that day our people across the nation, North, East, West and South overwhelmingly voted for

Late Chief MKO Abiola. ironically the Presidential Candidate of our great party, this same SDP. The rejection of identity politics by our people was so loud that even in Kano, the home state of his only challenger, Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC), the people’s preferred candidate Chief Abiola won overwhelming.

“The military was to end the euphoria of this epoch development only a few days later and imposed themselves on our country for another six years.

“But democracy was an idea that had manifested. Thus for those six years Nigerians gave them no peace even when Abiola, the custodian of the mandate, was incarcerated and later died in custody.

“Brave Nigerians stood up to be counted. Many were hunted down and killed including Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and several other martyrs. May the soul of these martyrs rest in peace. (Amen). Several other protestors were killed. Human Rights activists and journalists simply disappeared into thin air in the course of the struggle.

“But at the end of it all June 12 was an albatross that haunted the military with all their might and arsenal, in 1999 they had no option than to abdicate and return Nigerians to the path already chosen on June 13, 1993”, part of the statement reads.

L-R: Senate President Aspirant, Godswill Akpabio; Former Kano Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma during the 2023 democracy day celebration held at the Presidential Villa Abuja yesterday

CNPP, CSOs want INEC chairman Yakubu to step aside within 14 days

By Musa Baba Adamu

Conference Of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and civil society organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of the Coalition Of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) have demanded that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu resign from office.

The CNPP and the CSOs issued a 14-day ultimatum to Prof. Yakubu to step aside or they will galvanised all democratic and legal means to force him to do so.

In a statement jointly signed by the CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu and the National Secretary of the Coalition, Alhaji Ali Abacha, they explained that the INEC Chairman, who failed to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it procured

“despite billions of naira wasted on the 2023 general elections is not worthy of remaining in office and must not be allowed to continue to waste the nation’s resources in conduct of future elections.”

According to the statement issued in Abuja, the CNPP and the CSOs said that they are equally disturbed that “INEC under Prof. Yakubu has equally constituted itself into an obstruction to justice in the electioneering process in Nigeria by becoming a partisan umpire and opposing petitioners who are in the various tribunals to seek justice after being allegedly rigged out in the elections.”

They also accused the INEC Chairman of inflating about N105.25 billion spent on acquiring BVAS machines for the 2023 polls, saying that “despite having been severally accused of manipulating the February 25 presidential election results, counsel to INEC, Abubakar

Mahmoud, recently aligned with the position of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 presidential election to object to the presentation of subpoenaed witnesses who were INEC ad-hoc staff during the 2023 presidential election in the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“We recall that at the resumption of proceedings on Atiku’s petition last Thursday in Abuja, one of the witnesses, Egwuma Friday from Kubwa area of Abuja entered the witness box and prayed the court to admit his witness statement, but all respondents in the petition, including INEC, raised objections to stop the witness from testifying.

“This is the same INEC that has been accused of manipulating election results by deliberately refusing to transmit polling units results as promised real-time.

“From mere allegations, a staff of INEC, Abedemi Joseph on Friday told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that they were instructed by the commission under Prof. Yakubu, their employer, not to give copies of election results to political party agents who declined to sign the results.

“It’s now becoming more obvious that, until INEC Chairman exited from the commission, rebuilding confidence in the electoral body will be impossible due to the now battered image of the commission in the eyes of the electorates.

“More so, INEC under Prof. Yakubu took four years to mislead Nigerians by creating false impression that uploading of the election results to the BVAS real-time was the only way to go for the country’s electoral system.