The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) USA has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to unconditionally release Nnamdi Kanu, El Zakzaky, Sunday Igboho and other political detainees.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its Extraordinary Summit in Washington, DC, entitled, “The Washington Declaration”, and signed by the group’s Executive Director, Lloyd F. Ukwu, the group noted that Nigerian government is known for selective compliance with court orders, emphasising that, “Nigeria has majorly become a rulemaking country and not a rule-abiding country. Nigeria must be part of a rule-based International World Order if it wants a seat in the respected group of growing economies.”

The communiqué further called on the Supreme Court and the Election Tribunals to expeditiously and transparently consider election challenges. It said in the case of the Presidency, if no final determination is reached on the results of the February 2023 election before the scheduled May 29, 2023 inauguration,” the constitution must be followed which provides for the Senate President to be installed as the acting president for three months to chart a legal transition of power in Nigeria.”

The group also pointed out that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) brazenly violated the Electoral Act of 2022, violated its own guidelines, and lied to the Nigerian people when it promised on national television that it must transmit the election results from the polling units to the servers in real time, but failed to do so. The group called for the arrest and prosecution of its Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu and all the officials found to have participated in the fraudulent elections.

The communiqué also stressed: “That the Nigerian Supreme Court, the Nigerian Government, and all of its security agencies including DSS, refrain from hastily swearing in or facilitating the swearing-in of any of the 2023 presidential candidates until their exhaustion of all available remedies, including any appeals to a Sub-Regional, Regional, and\ or applicable international entities. This includes the ECOWAS, AU and UN entities.

“Alternatively, given the widespread discontent and rejection of electoral process by Nigerians at home and abroad, the Nigeria Supreme Court is urged to rely on the ‘political question doctrine’, to restrain itself from the polarising nature of its decision regarding the 2023 Presidential Elections, and order INEC to conduct a fresh election, which complies with the requirement of the Nigerian Constitution, the 2022 Electoral Act as amended, and INEC’s own guidelines.”

The communiqué urged the US to withhold any recognition of an incoming Nigerian government until the Supreme Court has thoroughly and transparently examined the 2023 election process and ruled definitively on the results of the elections in the same manner as the U.S. Government did with the 2022 elections in Kenya.

It further noted that the Nigerian police must be unbundled and decentralised in order to effectively maintain law and order across the entire country. A single police system, it emphasised, “has become archaic and inadequate to effectively and adequately police a country as populous as Nigeria and with an expansive land mass. There should be a four-tier police system in Nigeria, namely, zonal or regional police, state police.”

It urged Nigerians to put aside partisan, ethnic, and religious divisions and work jointly in the struggle to achieve the rule of law and good governance for the good of all the people of Nigeria. (Saturday Sun)

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