The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to play the role of a statesman and not interfere in Saturdays governorship election in Edo State.

HURIWA said in a statement on Monday that it was completely out of order for President Buhari to be seen extremely concerned about the outcome of the election when in actual fact as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is holding that office on behalf of the entirety of Nigeria and not for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The Nigerian President is by his oath of office expected to be above board and must not be seen actively promoting one sided agenda but should be the champion of a pan-Nigerian agenda,” the rights group said.

Such agenda, HURIWA said, ensures “electoral integrity, transparency and accountability.”

HURIWA further said: “We have observed with sock and disappointment that the campaign council setup by the APC headed by the Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje flew into Benin, the Edo State capital on a Presidential Jet belonging to all of Nigeria. If this trending news report is anything to go by, then we absolutely condemn this reckless display of political rascality and flagrant abuse of power which offends section 15(5) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We in HURIWA view this naked show of reckless executive power manifested in the illegal use of the people’s public jet for a partisan affair such as conveying the campaign team of the APC to Benin City as reported which we believe is meant to tell the electoral umpire that the President’s mind is that the electoral process be manipulated in favour of the party that controls presidential power which incidentally is the appointing authority of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“We hereby warn INEC to ensure that the governorship poll is free, fair, transparent and peaceful. INEC must not be intimidated by either the federally controlled security forces or should they out of intimidation already displayed by the fact that the presidential jet was deployed to convey campaign team of APC, to then manipulate the electoral process. We want to caution INEC that any attempt to rig the poll may not augur well for stability of Nigeria.

“We appeal to both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC as well as other political players participating in the poll to see the election as an opportunity for the good people of Edo state to democratically elect their freely chosen Governor.

“The people of Edo must be allowed to exercise their fundamental human rights to freely chose who should be their Governor.

“There must be no interference from external persons former governors, current governors or the President of Nigeria.”

The rights group lampooned INEC for having failed on many occasions to deliver free, fair, transparent and peaceful poll while stating that Nigerians are watching to see if the Edo election be a great opportunity for the “morally depraved INEC to redeem themselves from past misdeeds.”

“Elections,” HURIWA noted, “are a key mechanism through which citizens hold their governments accountable, but there must also be accountability within election processes themselves. There must be effective remedies in place for violations of citizens' election-related rights. There must also be administrative accountability for those organizing elections and those conducting governmental activities related to elections. In addition, there must be timely procedures to bring to account those who conduct criminal acts that affect electoral-related rights.

“Elections are competitive when citizens have reasonable and equitable opportunities to compete to be elected to governmental offices.”

The rights group also asked security forces to remain objective and to only work for public good and must not be used as agents by their Commander-in-Chief to undermine the will of the Nigerian people.

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