Prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has tasked the Minister of Information, Culture and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to return to 100-Level Law studies to understand that a President-elect does not possess any constitutional powers, authority or functions to perform on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

HURIWA which was reacting against the backdrop of a reactionary statement by Lai Mohammed purportedly warning the Labour Party’s presidential flag bearer and former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, that he (Obi) would be committing treason should he continue to dispute the so-called victory of President- elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The group said, in a statement by its national CoordinaTOR, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, thus: “We are highly embarrassed that a man who claims to have gone through the law school not to know that a President- elect is yet to be inaugurated and so has neither constitutional authority over the territory of the Federation nor any powers to exercise as Head of State of Nigeria."

"Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the INEC-declared President-elect and this pronouncement by the ethnically-deficit and corrupt INEC is being challenged through a litigation permitted by section 6 of the constitution. The chapter 4 of the constitution guarantees every citizen of Nigeria, including Peter Obi, the fundamental freedoms, including freedom to associate with everyone and to exercise his freedom of speech. The likes of Lai Mohammed must stop his overzealousness and stop disgracing us.”

HURIWA is therefore warning Mr. Mohammed to stop the channel noise and to stop overheating the polity because there is no law that says persons who feel cheated in an election should sit indoors. “This Lai Mohammed needs to go back to Year One in the University of Ilorin for crash course on constitutional freedoms and the powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and so he is made aware that a President-elect is simply someone on rehearsal and hasn't yet been conferred with any legal powers exercisable by a sitting President. And even a sitting President can be thoroughly criticised by the people of Nigeria who owns the sovereignty of Nigeria. Anyone contemplating arresting Peter Obi would have to arrest 60 million Igbo people worldwide and the Obidient family, cutting across all religions and ethnicities."

HURIWA cited sections 34 (1); 35 (1);39 (1); 41 (1); 42 (1,2) as the fundamental rights provisions to justify the right of all citizens to freedom of expression, including Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar who are contesting the emergence of the APC's Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The rights group recalled specifically, that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Washington DC, during his official engagements with some international media organizations, had warned Peter Obi to stop inciting people, adding it was wrong for Obi, in one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and, in another breadth, incite people to violence.

“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.

“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing. Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.

The Minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the Minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as President.

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