Osun poll: INEC Stance: A Threat To Democracy, Says Rights Activist
…..Backs CUPP , …..Condemns Arrest of Diekola
As reactions and counter reactions still trailed the last Saturday
governorship election in Osun State, a human rights activist, Comrade
Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman has totally rejected the stance of the
authority of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by
pronouncing the concluded guber poll as inconclusive, describing the
position of the electoral umpire as a threat to our hard earned
democracy and 2019 general elections.
He urged the authority of the electoral Commission to respect the
wishes of the electorates who voted massively for the candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Saturday guber election by
declaring Senator Ademola Adeleke as winner of the election, arguing
that the electoral guidelines which INEC rested upon to declare the
concluded guber election as inconclusive is null, void and ultra vires
in the face of Supreme Court of Nigeria, Section 69 of the amended
Electoral Act,2010 and Section 179 of the amended 1999 Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He also thrown his weight behind the allegation of bias and
favouritism leveled against the Nation’s electoral Commission by the
Coalition of United Political Parties(CUPP) for releasing the
uncollected Permanent Voters Card(PVC) to the members of the ruling
All Progressives Congress(APC) in the units where the rerun election
slated to be held on Thursday.
Comrade Sulaiman who alleged that his sister group, the Civil
Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) had
earlier raised an alarm before the conduct of the concluded Saturday
gubernatorial election that the electoral umpire was planning to
release the uncollected PVC to the ruling party (APC) so as to have
edged ahead of other contenders in the guber election.
In another development, Sulaiman who is the Executive Chairman, Centre
for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), strongly condemned the
illegal arrest of the opposition political leader,Alhaji Fatai Oyedele
Diekola by the Police in a case which he was a complainant and
brigandage against the members of the opposition political parties in
the State, calling for immediate release of Alhaji Diekola or his
group takes the option of legal means to secure the release of Alhaji
Diekola.
According to him, “I appreciated the conduct of the Osun electorates
through the period of the concluded Saturday guber election. The
conduct of osun poll was similar to the conduct of the annul June 12,
1993 Presidential election which Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola was the
winner.The Monday attack on Alhaji Fatai Diekola is evil, barbaric,
ungodly and crime against humanity.
“It has shown that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC
are conniving together to subvert the desires of the Osun electorates
as regard the conduct of the last Saturday governorship election in
the State. All the illegalities being trying to perpetrate by the INEC
in connivance with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would
not stand the test of the time over Thursday rerun election. The
actions of APC and INEC show serious threat to our current democratic
experience which all lovers’ democracy should stand against.
Sulaiman further advised that the ruling APC should stop the
onslaught against the members of the opposition political parties in
the State over the illegal forthcoming rerun election in seven(7)
units of the four(4) local government areas of the State, advising the
ruling APC to accept their electoral defeat in good faith.
He therefore called on the genuine lovers and defenders of democracy
to rise up by defending the current rape of democracy in Osun State,
urging President Muhammadu Buhari as a man of integrity being called
himself to prevail on the authority of the Independent national
Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the winner of the Osun guber
poll without further delaying in accordance with the stipulated law of
the land.
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