http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/headline/f119042007.html

CAN) and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria (SCIAN), joined in condemning the conduct of the election and accused INEC of declaring fake results in many states.

Britain, in its reaction to the conduct of the elections, spoke of “significant shortcomings” and urged the Police to prevent a recurrence of the violence that claimed 50 lives.

Information Minister, Mr Frank Nweke told Reuters: “This administration is committed to going through with the 2007 elections on schedule and handing over to a new government on May 29.”

An 18-member coalition of the main opposition parties early yesterday called for the indefinite postponement of the election, rejected the results of the regional poll and demanded the replacement of the official electoral commission.

About 50 people were killed in election-day violence last Saturday amid alleged widespread abuses across Africa’s most populous country and top oil producer.
A group of local election observers said the results announced in 10 of 36 states did not reflect the will of the people and should be rejected.

EU wants polls re-run in some states
The European Union also criticised the conduct of the poll for state governors and said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should seriously consider re-running the election in several states.

A statement issued after a long opposition meeting said: “Nigerians have lost confidence in the integrity of this government and its ability to conduct free, fair and credible elections.”

The elections are expected to lead to the first handover of power from one civilian government to another since independence from Britain in 1960.
“The coalition calls on Nigerians to protest in a non-violent manner the sham elections so far conducted,” the opposition statement said.

AC asks Obasanjo to resign

The Action Congress (AC) in a statement yesterday asked “President Olusegun Obasanjo and his cohorts, including the Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Ehindero and INEC Chairman, Maurice Iwu, to resign from office for plunging Nigeria into a huge crisis through a mindless manipulation of last Saturday’s state legislative and governorship polls.

“From Kano to Kwara and Plateau to Bayelsa, there is no peace across the land because this government has shamelessly ensured that the peoples’ mandate is not respected. There will be no peace until the stolen mandate in every state has been returned.

“Obasanjo should resign, the IG should go, Iwu should go, and a neutral body should organise fresh elections in the country. Anything short of that will be unacceptable to the good people of this country.

“We also condemn, in the strongest terms, the crackdown on AC leaders in Ekiti and Osun states, where many of them have been declared wanted in the aftermath of the protests. This is the clearest indication yet that the police are grossly partisan and cannot be trusted to provide the conducive environment to organise free and fair polls.

INEC is a national embarrassment —RELIGIOUS LEADERS

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria (SCIAN),under the platform of Inter Faith Forum, yesterday, accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of declaring fake results in many states in the last weekend’s gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections.

The religious leaders described the exercise as a national tragedy capable of throwing the nation into turmoil. They, however, appealed to the opposition parties not to boycott this weekend’s Presidential election in a bid to avoid a constitutional crisis.

The religious leaders maintained that boycotting the polls would not prevent the electoral commission from holding the election and declaring the results.
Leaders of the two apex religious bodies while addressing newsmen in Abuja on the state of the nation, said the conduct of the election by INEC was a national embarrassment, as it gave away the commission as a tool in the hand of the ruling party.

Indeed, the leaders argued that except in some few states, the election was a reflection of massive subversion of the people’s will through a collaboration of agents of states and gangs of party thugs. “This has clearly marred the credibility of the results declared by INEC,” they said.

They called on all aggrieved politicians to proceed to the election petition tribunals with a view to getting the fake results declared reversed.
However, the groups led by the Secretary-General of SCIAN, Alhaji Abdulateef Adegbite, and the General-Secretary of CAN, Samuel Salif, condemned INEC for deceiving Nigerians, saying the electoral body insulted the sensibility of Nigerians by promising that it would use electronic means to transmit the results when it actually had the intention of using the primitive method of handwritten transmission.

Lamenting the conduct of the election, Alhaji Adegbite who read the position of the religious leaders said: “It is not clear to anybody the total number of polling stations we have. On the election day, during his midway assessment, Iwu talked of 120,000 booths which clearly was not the case. The invincibility of the so-called DDC exercise has collapsed in the face of the massive rigging that occurred with the evident stuffing of ballot boxes. In fact, there were no DDC machines.

“The electronic transfer of result which INEC promised to beam to the populace was replaced with the primitive hoarding of results which came in trickles and by means that lacked any credibility and transparency whatsoever.

“The delay in announcing results clearly showed that INEC was not the returning officers in the elections. In many states such as Kano, Bauchi, Edo, it took curfew and more than two days delay before the results were released,” he said.

And speaking at an embassy reception on Tuesday night in Abuja, the British High Commissioner, Sir Richard Gozney, spoke of “sufficient shortcomings” in last weekend’s polls and urged the police to prevent a repeat on Saturday.

AC considers withdrawal from polls

The Action Congress (AC) was last night considering withdrawing from this weekend’s presidential and National Assembly elections, the results of which it alleged have already been written.

At a press briefing in Abuja, the party’s national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, said President Olusegun Obasanjo was deliberately orchestrating a crisis that would result in a state of emergency that would enable him unilaterally amend the Constitution to allow him perpetuate himself in office.

Noting the party’s indecision on contesting this weekend’s presidential and National Assembly elections, he said: “No Nigerian trusts the President” and no political party beside the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) believed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could conduct a free and fair election.
Chief Akande who was flanked by Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate and other party bigwigs at the press briefing dismissed last weekend’s state elections as the biggest political fraud in the history of the nation.

Alleging the complicity of security agencies in the rigging of the elections, he said the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, had his stay in office extended to show others that “doing Obasanjo’s dirty job was rewarding.”

Lamenting the choices facing the party, he said: “We are constrained to go into this presidential election because we know as a fact that the result of the presidential election is already being written. Today, definitely the National Executive Committee of the Action Congress will meet and take a decision.

“Last Saturday’s election cannot by any standard be adjudged free, fair and credible. It was a sham, a fraud, and a farce beyond comparison in its level of ludicrousness and absurdity. It cannot stand. It must not stand. It is immoral and it must be condemned. All those responsible for such unconscionable rape on democracy should be ashamed of themselves. Democracy cannot thrive on fraud. Democracy will not survive in Nigeria if elections can be rigged with such impunity.

Democracy will not survive in our country if elections are characterised by violence, theft of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot papers, late or non arrival of election officials and materials, and falsification of election results by the so-called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in favour of PDP candidates, with few token states conceded to the opposition out of fear of the wrath of the people.

“What we are witnessing today in this country is a steady but dangerous move towards a one-party dictatorship for the interest of one man, General Olusegun Obasanjo, and a tiny clique around him.

“The unprecedented crisis expected to greet the on-going electoral banditry has been designed to lead to a declaration of a state of emergency to enable General Obasanjo consolidate his dictatorship.

“Having seen the AC as the key roadblock to his life Presidency ambition, a desperate Obasanjo has made sure that in 24 to 26 states where the AC is dominant, no election took place or that the results in those places are re-written by INEC to favour the PDP.
“The intention is to make sure that the AC is wiped off the political map of Nigeria," he said.

E be like say na ur father wan start am!


just jokin!

Why your father no first start am. Idiot.
For me Nigeria is on his way to doom and as fast as an f1 car. Kidnapping, massive corruption, murders, militancy etc. These are the hallmark of an impending civil war. The civilians have proved themselves completely impotent in dealing with these. We need law and order. We need security. we need martial law. I dont bloody care what people think or say. We need the military.

God for bid coup in Naija, you guys should be careful with what you are sending, we are all able to express ourselves (freedom of speech/information) because of democracy which is one of the foundermental principle of democracy.
Who can try this during Abacha reign?

At least during Abacha regime you could leave your house in the morning without fear that either yourself or your family you are leaving behind is not going to be kidnapped, mugged, robbed, molested or worse still raped.
Of course a military regime is far from being perfect, but with the mob ruling us at present we have been denied a fundamental freedom; mandate at the polls. They are not accountable to the people just as the military. This is George Orwells` animal farm bein replayed. The wool should be removed from our eyes. This is no democracy.

snowdrop

wetin?