Movement for Credible Elections warns against anything that could lead to derailment of 2027 elections

 

By allcitynews.ng 

Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) has expressed concerns over the stylish way with which lawmakers are handling things which are meant to create rooms for credible 2027 elections. It warned against anything that could  lead to derailment  of 2027 elections

Addressing  the  press, MCE on Monday, February 9, condemned what it described the growing fragility in Nigeria electioneering system, and, therefore, called for a credible electoral reform before the 2027 General Elections to avoid the exercise being "at risk."

The group, while making the call, maintained that the fragility in the electioneering system had made the electorate to lose trust in the system, noting that the rot in the  electioneering system had equally made it impossible for the electoral system to reflect true will of the masses.

The movement, while noting that the briefing, which held in Lagos was the inaugural meeting, expressed its resolve at having branches across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

This was just as the group noted that  areas members of National Assembly should focus more attention in strengthening the Electoral Act 2022, Mandatory Electronic Transmission of Results, Strict Sanctions for Electoral Offences.

The movement further demanded that sections of the Electoral Act dealing with electoral offences must be strengthened to impose clear, deterrent penalties for vote buying, voter’s intimidation, assault on election personnel, destruction of election materials, and falsification of results, adding that there was need to  Strengthening the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) institutional Independence.

Some of the group members, Hon. Usman Bugaje, Professor Pat Utomi, and immediate past president of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba, Comrade Adewale Adebayo, Bala Zakka,  who took spoke during the briefing, in unanimous declaration said there was need for systemic and  decisive constitutional/electoral reforms before the 2027 General Elections. And they warned that the forthcoming exercise was seriously at risk if the reform was not carried out before then.

Bugaje, Wabba, Adebayo, Zakka, warned that, unless urgent step is taken now, the consequences would be deeper in public disillusionment, growing public resentment and further erosion of democratic legitimacy, which he said would open doors to political instability.

"It is for this reason that MCE, a national coalition of civil groups and citizens, formally calls on the leadership of the National Assembly, both the Senate and the House of Representatives, to prioritize far reaching and non- negotiable reforms in the ongoing harmonization of electoral reform bills ahead of the 2027  elections.

"MCE emphasised that successive electoral cycles in Nigeria have witnessed the same troubling electoral patterns. These include electoral violence, voter suppression, vote buying, weak logistics, selective deployment of technology, poor enforcement of electoral laws, manipulation during collation, and the open circumvention of voters’ choices. These problems are no longer isolated incidents," he said.

Utomi, in his remark, sadly lamented that the country in dire situation "and pushing dangerously to the brink, saying that it was time for true citizens to arise to the occasion and rescue her.

"The state of our nation is unsound and pushing dangerously to the brink. It is time for citizens, true citizens, to arise, and draw a line in the sand. Before us is collapse vs progress; life and death. We must choose life that we may live," he said.

The press briefing which had in attendance, Dr Usman Bugaje, Prof Pat Utomi, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, Comrade Prince Adewusi, Chief Wale Okunniyi, Comrade Adewale Adebayo, Bala Zakka, reiterated their demand for Attorney General to nip the bud at this stage every attempt to sabotage the elections.

The MCE called for urgent stakeholder meetings to review the 2023 elections; establishment of a consequence management committee to punish all who did wrong in the 2023 elections.

The group which also called for commencement of oversight reviews of the activities of the National Assembly on elections reforms also charged the Attorney General to commence prosecution of all Legislators who have frustrated the agency function of the NASS as representatives of the people  on charges of treasonable felony.

Moreover the group demanded the  immediate establishment of a commission on State Capture similar to South Africa’s Zondo commission, Constituting an international panel to probe the functioning of INEC, which is funded significantly by foreign donors who have to account to their taxpayers, with a view to changing operating modes, prosecuting past abusers and setting up new ways of constituting INEC membership just as it called on Nigerian Bar Association to commence a process of delisting all judges and lawyers who have played roles in the diminishing

legitimacy of the judiciary because of elections; and in the decline of the idea of the rule of law in Nigeria.

ADERTISE Your Brand with us.

Send us your press invite, Press Release/Have Breaking story with pictorial evidence?

Or wants to assist us by DONATIONS? kindly contact us via  09159744240/allcitynews86@gmail.com

Goal of allcitynews.ng/allcitynews.blog:-

To interface between policy makers & general public, be most influential, informative and reliable issues-based online newspaper.

Disclaimer:

Comments expressed here do not in anyway reflect the opinions of allcitynews.ng or any employee thereof