The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of paying lips service to the sustenance of democracy in the country.
The governor said, “Any President that looks the other way while the rights of his people to freely elect their leaders are being snatched at gunpoint by his own party men is not worthy of being associated with democracy.”
Fayose said this in a press release by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Sunday while reacting to the conduct of the rerun National and State House of Assembly elections in Rivers State.
He described the poll as a sad reminder of the level of destruction already done to the country’s electoral process by the All Progressives Congress’ government.
According to him, with what happened in the elections, “free, fair and credible election is dead in the country and whatever victory recorded by any political party in the election will be nothing but victory at gunpoint.”
“It is clear that Nigeria is under siege and only prompt intervention by the international community could save democracy in the country from this imminent collapse,” he said.
Fayose said it was worrisome that the legacy of free, fair and credible election left by the Peoples Democratic Party had been destroyed less than two years that the APC assumed power.
“We thought that we have gone past this era of manipulated electoral process after the 2015 general elections, which brought the APC and President Buhari to power, but the Buhari’s administration has taken us back to the stone age by merging his party, APC with the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police, military and other security agencies.
“It is sad that snatching of ballot boxes, hijacking of voting materials and electoral violence which had become a thing of the past have now become part of our electoral process.
“It is even more worrisome that despite that votes are counted openly at the polling units, electorates are no longer sure of the results of elections until announcement by INEC, which has become an organ of the APC.”
Fayose, a member of the PDP, reiterated his call on the United States of America’s President-elect, Mr. Donald Trump, to focus his attention more on Nigeria, with a view to saving the country from disintegrating.
“God forbid, if Nigeria disintegrates, the entire continent of Africa will disintegrate.
“The order of the day in Nigeria now is disobedience to court orders, abuse of human rights, extrajudicial killings and mass burial of innocent Nigerians killed by the Army. The reality we must all face is that should all these be allowed to continue, Nigeria faces imminent danger and the international community must not allow the country to get to that level of total collapse before it begins to caution President Buhari and his APC.”
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