Stakeholders Decry Blackmail, Intimidation Of Electoral Officers By Politicians

The Election Reform Expert Group (EREG) have raised alarm over what it described as blackmail and intimidation of electoral officers by political actors accusing them of attempts to derail the gains made in Nigeria's quest for a free, fair and credible electoral system.

The group comprising several stakeholders in electoral process in Nigeria made the allegation in a statement jointly signed by Dr. Chima Amadi of Centre for Transparency Advocacy; Eze Nwagwu of Partners for Electoral Reforms; and Abdul Mahmud President of Public Interest League of Lawyers.

The group said one of such blackmail is the current plot to create a nexus between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakub and a serving governor, as evidence of the Electoral Management Body (EMB) "taking instructions" from the governor.

It described such allegations as laughable, saying such is the handiwork of desperate politicians whose stock in trade is violent manipulations of elections.

EREG pointed out that such infamous persons have come suddenly under threat by a renewed, motivated, and determined Electoral body under the leadership of Prof. Yakub.

The group lamented that these political actors have turned an ordinary action of political recruitment into a dance of the absurd; unleashing terror, mayhem and inflicting pains, sorrow and death on the electorates and electoral umpires.

It said the free flow of blood in the Rivers re-run elections; the brutality in the creeks of Bayelsa before that; the rape of decency in the Imo re-run elections; the continued torching of INEC facilities/property and physical harassment of her staff are just a few of the machinations of political actors across the spectrum.

It decried that elections in Nigerian have become a theatre of war due to the activities of these political gladiators.

The statement reads in part, "In the fabled imaginations of these conspiracy practitioners, the insistence of the EMB, especially its relatively new Chairman that politicians should play by the rules (which they themselves set out in the Electoral Act), failure of which breeds consequences, is indicative of someone who has a hidden, predetermined agenda.

"Nigerians should therefore take note of the dangerous dimensions and boundless limits that these detractors are prepared to cross in their attempt to discredit the EMB and its officers and should disregard all manners of fables that will be "revealed" as evidence of a complicit EMB. 

It assured that the EREG will continue to engage INEC on the best approaches to improve our electoral processes and  enjoined all Nigerians to take note of those who through their actions are robbing them of the rights to freely determine those who lead the country.

Other signatories to the statement are Jaye Gakia, Coordinator, Protest to Power; Okechukwu Nwanguma for Network of Police Reforms in Nigeria; Faith Nwadishi, Executive Director, Centre for Gender and Development Initiative and Member, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Board and Emeka J. Ononamadu, Executive Director, Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights.