Agents of darkness bent on using INEC to test will of Nigerians – Ohanaeze Ndigbo; Asks Buhari to call Yakubu to order
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from colluding with those attempting to subvert the will of the Nigerian people as expressed through their votes at the National elections of Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26, 2023.
The apex socio-cultural organisation of Ndigbo, in a statement by Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, its National Publicity Secretary, hailed the courage and patriotism of voters from across the country and their overwhelming endorsement of the Peter Obi/Datti Ahmed presidential ticket, but regretted “that some agents of darkness are bent on using the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test the will of Nigerians.”
Citing several instances that point to a grand design to rig the 2023 presidential election, especially in states such as Lagos and Rivers, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in the statement titled “NIGERIANS HAVE SPOKEN,” reminded the INEC Chairman that voters went into the election based on his many assurances, stressing that if he allowed the travesty going on across the country to continue, it will amount to “a betrayal of trust which the millions of Nigerians will surely revolt against.”
Full text of the statement reads:
NIGERIANS HAVE SPOKEN
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide thanks the good people of Nigeria for their courage, steadfastness and the ultimate discharge of their civic duties by exercising their franchise for a better Nigeria at the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26, 2023.
The Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, MFR expresses immense delight that the youths of Nigeria walked their talk by voting for Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed of the Labour Party, overwhelmingly across the country. Going by the results so far released, Nigerians have fully expressed their delight for a quantum leap from the asphyxiating ocean of darkness and want to an inspiring gravy train of light and prosperity.
It is most regrettable that some agents of darkness are bent on using the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test the will of Nigerians. For instance:
1. The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, yesterday, raised alarm that some “officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Lagos and Delta states have refused to upload the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the states unto INEC’s Central Server. The Chairman, in a statement said that most of the polling units affected were areas where the LP candidate, Peter Obi, had recorded victory. The chairman listed places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, in Lagos where results showed that Labour Party won convincingly, and INEC officials had failed to upload results. He added that ‘they were using the police to drive away the Labour Party agents and supporters out of the venue”. The police asserted that “they had the firm instruction from the INEC headquarters not to upload.”
2. Similarly, Chief Bode George alerted that the “INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu sneaked into Lagos at the night of the election and met with some unknown persons in Ikoyi Lagos.” The most curious, worrisome and threatening is that Yakubu “arrived and left in a private jet owned by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
3. Mr. Olawale Okunniyi of the Labour Party reports of gunshots in parts of Lagos, and that its chieftain, Prof Pat Utomi, and some others have been held hostage and election results being manipulated at collation centres in parts of the state. Evidently, “Nigerians have demonstrated that they want Peter Obi to be their president by voting for him.”
4. Governor Nyesom Wike, after several months of melodramatic political ambivalence was confronted with a “stark reality of a defeat even in the polling units in his compound in Worji, where LP scored 323 votes against APC and PDP’s 5 and 2 votes respectively.” Abure informs that Wike “used the soldiers and police to intimidate, harass and take away election materials including the result sheets, manipulated the BVAS machines and uploaded fake results into the Central portal.” Other incidences include “Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro and several other areas where Labour Party was clearly leading in virtually all the polling units with very wide margins.”
5. And several other instances.
6. The National Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has warned that “if INEC dares to rig the election, Nigerians should protest seriously for international communities to intervene.” He added that it will be nunc dimities for Nigeria.
7. Professor Yakubu is reminded that Nigerians went into this election based on his assurances that the deployment of BVAS by INEC was a perfect antidote to electoral malpractices in Nigeria. It will therefore be very unfortunate if what is going on across Nigeria is allowed to continue. It is a betrayal of trust which the millions of Nigerians will surely revolt against.
8. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) states: “You can fool some of the people all the time; you can also fool all the people some of the time; but, you can’t fool all the people all the time”. Just as J F Kennedy (1917-1963) states: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
9. Mr. Peter Obi has often insisted that the Almighty God is only using him as a vessel to rescue and lift Nigeria from its current tailspin. In other words, the victory is yours and must be defended by all.
10. We call on President Muhammadu Buhari and the International community to prevail on Mahmood Yakubu not to lend a hand to the thickening Frankenstein monster that first devours its creator by respecting the will of the people. Nigerians have spoken.
Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide
