Yoruba council warn INEC against cancellation of results

Yoruba Council Worldwide has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the unilateral cancellation of Presidential election as proposed by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

Addressing a world press conference, Tuesday in Abuja, the council President, Aare Oladotun Hassan urged INEC to salvage and safeguard the ongoing process to conclusion and fruition predicated on free, fair and credible elections.

According to Hassan, any attempt to allow unilateral cancellation by the Chairman of INEC as proposed by Obasanjo and co-accomplices is a recipe for anarchy and full implosion that will take many years to repair.

He implored President Muhammadu Buhari alongside all Nigerians to ignore Obasanjo and insisted that, only the election tribunal court can address many of the issues raised on the uploading of the results from the Polling units to the INEC Portals.

Hassan called on all Presidential candidates to continuously maintain their peace accord demands in line with the National Peace Committee’s noble vision, objectives and mandates, saying that no one’s blood is worth the election.

He further called on all law enforcement agencies to be on red alert to immediately arrest anyone instigating or inciting violence either by utterance or deeds.

His words: “Chief Olusegun Obasanjo being a former President of Nigeria under whose watch as President midwife an election plagued with duress, mass killings and unprecedented electoral malpractices, whereas he propounded the “do or die” ideology into our electoral system.

“His undemocratic stance on many fronts has further reduced his level of opinion to a mere beer parlour argument without no substance to hold and bind the nation together as a true Democrat and Respected elder statesman.

“Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is under intense frustration and desperation to foist his endorsed political son; Peter Obi of the Labour Party on all Nigerians without due respect to our franchise will having sacrificed our efforts to vote for our choices on the 25th February 2023.

“We respect everyone’s choices without any iota of intimidation and violence, in as much as we respect the ibos and other ethnic regions, hence we expect equal reciprocity, consequently we wouldn’t want Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to drive his personal vendetta agenda under ethnic wedged venom of hatred and divide and rule syndrome to cause ethnic conflict that will inevitably nosedive into civil unrest as earlier postulated by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in his letter dated 27th February 2023.

“For it is only the Election Tribunal Court that can address many of the issues raised on the uploading of the results from the Polling units to the INEC Portals if truly those allegations raised are true, but for necessity and exigency of the preceding circumstances INEC needed to apply all lawful means to keep the process unimpeded despite the huge negativity caused by disgruntled politicians and desperate citizens whose intention is laced with ethnic bigotry rather than building one and a new Nigeria.

“Vote counting and tallying processes were carried out in a transparent, simple and professional manner, in the presence of party agents, observers, and security agents in the daytime in some polling units and with lamps in others, where voting was delayed due to human logistical problems.

“Based on Testimony from the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray commended INEC rather than chastised the Commission.

“The Ecowas Chief Observer urged INEC to increase the frequency of communication on developments regarding the electoral process(on uploading results to the portal, but it is most important to first diligently collate results at the RAC centres before LGA the to the State Levels before onward transmission to the final National Collation Center in Abuja) to the general public to discourage misinformation through social media.

“Hence, all Presidential candidates are hereby mandated to continuously maintain their peace accord demands in line with the National Peace Committee’s noble vision, objectives and mandates, for no one’s blood is worth the election.

“We call on all law enforcement agencies to be on red alert to immediately arrest anyone instigating nor inciting violence either by utterance or deeds.

“We hereby reiterate our confidence in INEC to continue the result computation process in line with the dictates of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and whoever wins must be declared immediately and given a certificate of return.”