Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the yesterday
rerun National and State House of Assembly elections in Rivers State
as a sad reminder of the level of destruction already done to the
country’s electoral process by the All Progressives Congress (APC)
government of President Mohammadu Buhari, saying; “Free, fair and
credible election is dead in the country and that whatever victory
that is recorded by any political party in the Rivers State election
will be nothing but victory at gun-point.”
The governor lamented that it was worrisome that the legacy of free,
fair and credible election left by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
has been destroyed less than two years that the APC assumed power,
saying; “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 (INEC), the police, military
and other security agencies.”
In a release issued on Sunday, Special Assistant to the governor on
Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted the
governor as saying that with what was witnessed in Rivers State
yesterday, it is clear that Nigeria is under siege and only prompt
intervention by the international community can save democracy in the
country from this imminent collapse.”
He said; “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,” the governor said.
Governor Fayose described President Buhari as a pretender, who has
only paid lips service to the sustenance of democracy in the country,
adding that “any president that looks the other way while the rights
of his people to freely elect their leaders is being snatched at
gunpoint by his own party men is not worthy of being associated with
democracy.”
He reiterated his call to the United States of America
President-Elect, Mr Donald Trump to focus his attention more on
Nigeria, with a view to saving the country from disintegrating,
saying; “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, extra judicial 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 call President
Buhari and his APC to order.”
