February 16, 2009
Press Release: The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has applauded the ruling of the Appeal Tribunal nullifying the election of Engr. Segun Oni of Ekiti State and ordering re-election in ten local councils in Ekiti State. The party says that while it would have loved the tribunal to order the swearing-in of the rightful owner of the disputed mandate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, it however sees the development as a very positive development against the backdrop of the shoddy job done by the Ekiti State Elections Tribunals.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says that the voiding of Oni’s mandate, once again, proves the fact that the macabre rape of the sovereignty of the Nigerian people in April 2007 is still exerting tremendous pressures on the system and says that it welcomes more of such laudable developments. It however says that the present shameless chairman of INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu should be disqualified from conducting the repeat polls.
“For us in Lagos AC and indeed for all Nigerians who witnessed the daylight robbery in Ekiti in April 2007, the most sensible thing to do was to throw away the impostor and order the swearing in of the rightful winner of the election. We know that Dr. Fayemi has gone through the lengths to prove the farce that produced Oni and we know that he still has incontrovertible forensic results of the sham in Ekiti State. We know that in deciding to engage in abracadabra and unexplainable juggling of figures on the Ekiti issue, the state elections tribunals was merely trying to find a desperate way to sell justice to the highest bidder. These were the reasons why we believed that justice would be done at the Appeals Tribunal.
“We however salute the Appeal Tribunal for throwing away the Oni government but we are still not comfortable with a situation where the tribunal barely stopped at doing justice to who deserves it but adopted a middle ground approach, which, with the benefit of hindsight, is programmed to reward the highest rigger. We feel that the Appeal Tribunal would have done what is right, which is punish the robber and return the loot to the real owner but we also salute the spark of courage that ran through their judgment.
“ Lagos AC wishes to state however that we have no shred of confidence in the ability of the shameless and discredited leadership of INEC to conduct any credible election in Nigeria at present, which is why we unequivocally demand that the present leadership be divested of the responsibility of conducting the repeat polls in the affected local councils. We note that the Yar’Adua government and the PDP have conspiratorially retained the present INEC leadership for such sordid jobs as the country was shocked with in 2007 and the spate of repeat polls, which are mere rehash of the same macabre and very shameful process the entire country is slaving under two years after.
“We therefore demand the complete overhaul of the present INEC before the repeat polls and that structures be put in place for a free, fair and credible polls in the ten local councils where repeat polls were ordered by the tribunal. We warn that a repeat of the same callous rigging in Ekiti State will be too costly for the entire nation and must not be entertained by either the PDP and its collaborator, INEC under Maurice Iwu.”
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos AC.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says that the voiding of Oni’s mandate, once again, proves the fact that the macabre rape of the sovereignty of the Nigerian people in April 2007 is still exerting tremendous pressures on the system and says that it welcomes more of such laudable developments. It however says that the present shameless chairman of INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu should be disqualified from conducting the repeat polls.
“For us in Lagos AC and indeed for all Nigerians who witnessed the daylight robbery in Ekiti in April 2007, the most sensible thing to do was to throw away the impostor and order the swearing in of the rightful winner of the election. We know that Dr. Fayemi has gone through the lengths to prove the farce that produced Oni and we know that he still has incontrovertible forensic results of the sham in Ekiti State. We know that in deciding to engage in abracadabra and unexplainable juggling of figures on the Ekiti issue, the state elections tribunals was merely trying to find a desperate way to sell justice to the highest bidder. These were the reasons why we believed that justice would be done at the Appeals Tribunal.
“We however salute the Appeal Tribunal for throwing away the Oni government but we are still not comfortable with a situation where the tribunal barely stopped at doing justice to who deserves it but adopted a middle ground approach, which, with the benefit of hindsight, is programmed to reward the highest rigger. We feel that the Appeal Tribunal would have done what is right, which is punish the robber and return the loot to the real owner but we also salute the spark of courage that ran through their judgment.
“ Lagos AC wishes to state however that we have no shred of confidence in the ability of the shameless and discredited leadership of INEC to conduct any credible election in Nigeria at present, which is why we unequivocally demand that the present leadership be divested of the responsibility of conducting the repeat polls in the affected local councils. We note that the Yar’Adua government and the PDP have conspiratorially retained the present INEC leadership for such sordid jobs as the country was shocked with in 2007 and the spate of repeat polls, which are mere rehash of the same macabre and very shameful process the entire country is slaving under two years after.
“We therefore demand the complete overhaul of the present INEC before the repeat polls and that structures be put in place for a free, fair and credible polls in the ten local councils where repeat polls were ordered by the tribunal. We warn that a repeat of the same callous rigging in Ekiti State will be too costly for the entire nation and must not be entertained by either the PDP and its collaborator, INEC under Maurice Iwu.”
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos AC.
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