A coalition of civil society groups, #OurMumuDonDo, on Friday stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters in Abuja to demand the prosecution of a former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, for electoral malpractices.
The group, in a letter to the INEC Chairman, stated that the former Peoples Democratic Party chieftain should be arraigned for subverting the will of the people during several elections.
Mantu, had in an interview on Channels Television, a private broadcast station, confessed to have rigged several elections for his former party, the PDP, by inducing electoral officials to falsify results and violate the electoral laws.
His admission had triggered reactions from the PDP, which refuted his claims and also denounced him.
But the coalition in its letter demanded Mantu’s prosecution, noting that it was a great opportunity for INEC to demonstrate its resolve to prosecute electoral offenders as a deterrent to others.
It read, “As we have mentioned in our previous engagements with the INEC, the number of Nigerians going to the polling booths have been in a consistent decline since 2003 and the reason for this, among other disturbing factors, is the downright rigging of elections, which blatantly infringes on the right of the Nigerian people to freely exercise their franchise.
“It is therefore imperative that the electoral umpire, the INEC, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the law enforcement agencies, rise to this clarion call to prosecute Senator Mantu and all his accomplices.”
A member of the coalition, Adebayo Raphael, argued that Nigerians had lost trust in the electoral system, adding that only a proper overhaul of the system could restore public confidence in the system.
Also reacting to Mantu’s confession, a coalition of over 400 civil society organisations under the aegis of Transition Monitoring Group, called on Nigerians to be vigilant during the 2019 general elections to avoid rigging and other forms of electoral irregularities.
In a statement by its Chairperson, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the organisation called on INEC to monitor the source of funding for campaigns by political parties and thwart the influence of illicit campaign monies in the electoral process.
Akiyode-Afolabi said, “As we wait for Senator Mantu and his co-travellers in the business of rigging elections to discharge their moral burden, we call on all stakeholders to be vigilant as the 2019 electoral process shapes up.
“TMG makes no mistake about the fact that there are still vestiges of election riggers, who unlike Senator Mantu, may just not be ready to confess their infractions on the laws of the land.
“It is the vigilance of the electorate and critical stakeholders that would prevent any plans to subvert and undermine the vote of the people. It is clear to us that the only way to prevent rigging is for all stakeholders to keep an eye on the entire electoral cycle, in order to protect its credibility.”
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