THE Pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has criticized the Federal Government for allegedly manipulating the truth about the 2023 presidential election.
The group’s Secretary General, Sola Ebiseni, in a statement released in Akure on Wednesday, April 6, condemned the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed for engaging in what it described as “a macabre dance” in a foreign land.
Mohammed had, during his recent engagements with some selected newspapers in the United States, adjudged the controversial 2023 general elections as one of the fairest Nigeria has conducted.
The minister claimed that the President Muhammadu Buhari created a level-playing ground for the election.
He also accused the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of incitement, an action the minister likened to treason.
Reacting, Afenifere said that Mohammed’s interviews are part of an attempt to distort facts about the 2023 presidential election.
The group also accused the minister of lying about the manual management of election results under Nigeria’s laws.
While criticizing Mohammed for alleging that under Nigerian law, the management of election results is manual, the group pointed out that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had admitted the failures of the statutorily prescribed components of the electoral process.
Although the ruling of the court states that INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission, the group claimed that the Electoral Act 2022 was amended to eliminate the pernicious manual procedures that had characterized Nigeria’s electoral process.
Afenifere alleged that during the elections, security agencies in many states worked for the ruling party, adding that the government and its security arms watched in acquiescence as armed thugs threatened citizens with mayhem, which they freely carried out.
The group accused Mohammed of failing to acknowledge the vigilance of the people in the home states of some of his party’s leaders, who incurred the wrath of organized and armed hired thugs in the elections.
“One wonders what is left for the courts to decide after the crude analysis by Lai Mohammed of the performance of the candidates, the figures of which he effortlessly and shamelessly bacterized,” the statement said in part.
“He ruled that Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared President.
“He crudely handed down judgment on the status of the FCT and lied against the Constitution when he said, “not only must a candidate have the plurality of votes, he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states”.
On the treason comments, Afenifere called on Mohammed to rewind his past statements, particularly the interview he granted Sani Tukur of an online newspaper on April 27, 2013, where he allegedly said, “Democracy will fail in Nigeria unless APC wins in 2015.”
Afenifere noted that the minister chose the wrong congregation for its antidemocratic sermons in America.
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