A pro-democracy and Non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the annulment of the Saturday, July 14, 2018, governorship poll in Ekiti State because of overwhelming evidence of monetary inducements and the failure of the electoral panel to stop same.

Also, the Rights group has warned that if the current incompetent and compromised hierarchy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, and the heavily compromised security chiefs are left intact to oversee the 2019 general election then the national security of the nation maybe imperiled even as vote buying may spark off widespread riots.

“The legitimacy of the Ekiti governorship election is vitiated by widespread irregularities characterised by open vote buying by political parties with the highest bidder getting the highest number of choreographed votes. The conduct of the electoral panel and the security forces during the election can at best be described as treasonous and vexatious. We encouraged the candidate of the PDP who was robbed in a daylight robbery to proceed to the election tribunal immediately and we advised the judiciary to decide this matter in the best interest of justice and avoid being compromised or bribed.”

“We are embittered that even when there are overwhelming evidences of votes buying by politicians especially by the party affiliated to the central government which reportedly got security backups to perpetrate these illegalities and electoral malfeasance, INEC still proceeded to even doctor the overall results of the election just to ensure that a pre-determined and federally anointed candidate of the All Progressives Congress is produced as winner. The open and naked show of shame continued with the primitive display of arrogance by the presidency and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which specifically celebrated this infamy done to Ekiti voters by INEC by announcing on its tweeter handle that governor Ayodele Fayose who is a vocal critique of President Buhari would be dealt with over some allegations that in the face of the law are still mere conjectures until a competent court of law reaches a determination. The barrage of celebratory attacks emerging from the presidency shows that the Ekiti State governorship election was traded off by INEC and procured by the presidency.”

In a statement to the media endorsed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA warned that the current hierarchies of INEC and security agencies if not changed immediately, will push the nation into a state of war should the Ekiti example of seeing and buying of votes as done by All Progressives Congress be replicated across Nigeria.

“We are worried that mob justice may become legitimate, should politicians try to play on the gullibility and government’s imposed poverty, to try to buy votes. This evil tendency would be resisted and we fear that this may precipitate a greater national security instability. INEC chairman must be sacked even as all the heads of security must be swiftly changed to bring in patriots and committed unbiased Nigerians to head these agencies.”

HURIWA also accused INEC of failing to issue Permanent voters cards to millions of Nigerians who registered in the exercise that has just been abruptly stopped by INEC.

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