Oluchi Chibuzor
Ahead of this weekend’s governorship election in Osun State, some members of a coalition of civil society organizations have tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that there is no vote-rigging during the gubernatorial race.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, yesterday, organised by the Civil Society Committee for Anti-Fraud Election Security (CISCAES), the Chairman of the National Consultative Front, Prof Pat Utomi, said INEC must tackle any form of vote-rigging or election fraud in the forthcoming Osun governorship election in few day’s time.
Utomi said Nigerians and the international community must be alert to the ongoing conspiracy by the powers that be to recklessly rig the election.
He said: “It goes without saying that if the planned rigging of the “Osun 2022 guber poll is not prevented and stopped, it will ultimately impose a huge threat on the anticipated credibility of the 2023 general elections.”
“The direct immediate consequence would become voter apathy in 2023 for a lack of confidence in the ability of INEC, to conduct transparent, fair and credible 2023 polls.
“Underscoring the critical importance of the establishment of a highly functional anti-rigging electoral war room, which will help to track, identify and dismantle the already existing vote-rigging mechanism, CISCAES will immediately create the required anti-rigging War Room, scheduled to run from Wednesday 13th July 2022 to Saturday 16th July 2022, for the aim of monitoring, tracking and countering ongoing fraudulent practices, both before and during the election.
“Precisely on Thursday 14th July 2022, CISCAES and its allies shall organize and lead a pre-election “Ballot Security Solidarity March” to INEC Office in Oshogbo, being compelled out of the necessity to draw the attention of the general public to the critical need for a credible “Osun 2022 Guber-Poll” which will serve as a proof of INEC’s ability to conduct fair and credible elections in 2023,”he said.
Also speaking, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), noted that INEC should use the electoral offenders in the recent Ekiti State governorship election to set standards for the 2023 general election.
He stressed that they “outrightly demand of the independent national electoral commission (INEC), to ensure that all political parties and individuals that committed electoral offences during the Ekiti State gubernatorial election are arraigned in competent courts forthwith, before end of the week. The arraignment of the Electoral offenders will serve as a deterrent to all electoral offenders and prevent any form of impunity in the Osun State gubernatorial election fixed for July 16, 2022.”
On his part, the convener of CISCAES, Comrade Kennedy Iyere, said the group has started sensitization, training, recruitment, mobilization and deployment of youths as volunteers for ward-2-ward and polling unit-2-polling unit anti-rigging ballot monitoring exercise.
He said the exercise was designed to enforce ballot policing by youth voters and other electorates at their various wards and polling units.
“This intervention shall compel ballot security and surveillance which will make it too difficult or impossible for INEC to either manipulate the BVAS or affect other technical vote-rigging measures. Where cases of fraud or vote-rigging are identified, such shall be out rightly reported to our own CSO-driven anti-rigging War Room (Situation Room) for immediate and needful interventions.
“Public issuance of a pre-election warning notice to INEC Chairman (Prof Mahmoud Yakubu) on the critical need to conduct a transparent, free and credible Osun 2022 Guber-Poll, else there shall emerge a widespread anti-INEC protest demanding his immediate sack.
“But if, by close monitoring and observance, it turns out that INEC failed to conduct a credible election, then CISCAES will move to declare the results unacceptable and shall forthwith call for its entire cancellation, which will be followed by a widespread anti-INEC protest.
“The anti-INEC protect, which will be led by a group of pro-democracy individuals and CSOs under the auspices of CISCAES shall mobilize for a joint national and Diaspora protest which will call for the immediate sack or removal of Prof Mahmood Yakubu, as INEC Chairman.”
