BY PETER ANOSIKE

A Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nelson Ahamefula Akuma, has described the by-elections that were conducted across 13 states and 16 constituencies of the federation last Saturday as a mockery of democracy.

Speaking while reacting to the controversies that trailed the elections, he said that what All Progressives Congress (APC), has succeeded in doing is militarizing the electoral process.

He said that whoever calls what happened on Saturday as election, knows next to nothing about democracy,

According to him, when an election is not free, fair and credible, what happened is not democracy and whoever wins is a usurper of the people?s will.

He said that Instead of elections getting better in Nigeria, they are getting worse.

Speaking further, he said that the entire election was marred with shooting, ballot box snatching and vote buying.

According to him, it was because of such acts that a court in Canada tagged some political parties in Nigeria as terrorist groups.

On the poor performance of African Democratic Congress in the by-elections, he said that the party is still building and not ready for election yet.

Akuma said that since they are still building, it would be wrong to use the last Saturday?s by-elections as a test of strength or capacity of the African Democratic Congress because the party did not have candidates for most of the positions contested in the by-elections.

He also said that the type of brigandage, desperation and violence that members of the APC displayed during the election is also a wake up for them in particular and Nigerian people that a lot of preparation still need to be done to protect democracy.

?The outcome of last Saturday?s by-elections that was held in 13 states and 16 constituencies simply showed that the court in Canada was not wrong by declaring some political parties in Nigeria terrorist organizations. In some states, more than 300 thugs armed with rifles, knives, and cutlasses were arrested on election day. Please what will you call that? Is that democracy or terrorism? Is it democracy when elections are marred by widespread violence, when ballots are openly and brazenly exchanged for money, when opposition candidates are excluded without explanation, and when the very institutions entrusted to safeguard democracy become complicit, then the vote of the ordinary Nigerian ceases to have meaning. In some states, whole polling units were cancelled due to ballot box snatching and the open intimidation of voters. So, what we witnessed last Saturday was not democracy but acts of banditry,? Akuma said.

According to him, by the ruling party descending to such level of violence just to win election simply showed that they have realized that the Nigerian masses are no longer with them.

He said that APC members would continue to hallucinate until 2027 when the truth would be dawned on them.

Speaking further, he appealed to Nigerian masses not to take the by-elections as something serious but rather to keep on mobilizing for 2027.

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