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Bola Badmus – Lagos
The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations on Monday in Lagos frowned at plan by some Nigerians, clamouring for setting up interim government, instead of handing over to power to President-elect, Bola Tinubu, come May 29, 2023, warning that those criticising the outcome of 2023 General Elections to desist from such act as such was capable of truncating the country’s democracy.
The Coalition, while handing over the warning, reminded Nigerians that the democracy the country was enjoying now was not gotten on a platter of gold, saying that some citizens laid down their lives for it, while other suffered one form of deformation or the other during the struggle and as such should be guided jealously.
Addressing newsmen at the press conference which took place in Ikeja, Lagos, the Convener of the Coalition, Comrade Rasaq Olokoba, in company Comrade Nelson Ekujumi of the Committee for Defence of People’s Mandate (CDPM), Titi Akosa of Centre for 21st Century Issues and others, said the body, to the credit of those who died in the democratic struggle, had to appeal to those behind the anti- democratic tendencies being promoted, to have a rethink.
Olokoba, while calling for caution, noted that following the fair, successful and credible conduct of the 2023 General Elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), noted that it had “watched with bated breadth and shock, how some characters are plotting to truncate the hard earned democracy at all costs through treasonable and subversive calls for the installation of an interim government.”
“These unpatriotic elements have resorted to fake news, hate speech, lies, falsehood, misinformation and campaign of blackmail and calumny against all known national institutions with a view to arm twisting and blackmailing them to toe their ignoble and undemocratic line.
“Wickedly of them, their sinister and unpatriotic actions have caused threats to the lives of Nigerians because their party and candidate lost an election.
“If we all recall, while INEC was busy with the collation of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections results, two bitter and sore losers presidential candidates and members of their political parties, having seen the handwriting of defeat on the wall via their manually collated party agents results from the polling units, to the wards, local government levels and state collation centres, started calling for the cancellation of the presidential election midway, citing irregularity of non- uploading of the results to the IRev by INEC and sadly, this irresponsible, insensitive, reckless, provocative and treasonable call was echoed by a former President of Nigeria whose place is cemented in our political history as the progenitor of do or die politics, who supervised the most scandalous elections in our national life,” the convener said.
Besides, he said the sensibilities of Nigerians, on daily basis, were assaulted and traumatized by the so called men of God denigrating the Lord’s temple for filthy political lucre, describing such as very sad, unfortunate, reprehensible and despicable.
“We however want to use this opportunity to admonish these agents of destabilization, that as Nigerians who went to the polls peacefully and orderly to exercise our franchise on election day and even observe the elections, we will no longer fold our arms and watch them discredit and undermine our democracy and national security for their selfish end,” he said.
Olokoba, while noting that the treasonable comments and conducts being exhibited over an election that was creditably conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, which the aggrieved politicians lost was becoming embarrassing and unbearable, affirmed that the outcome of the February 25, 2023 exercise reflected the will of the people as expressed at the polls as observed by the Coalition he led which deployed its men to monitor and filed in reports from the field.
“The silence of the majority of Nigerians who voted for the President-elect and other candidates who won at the polls, must not be mistaken for cowardice, enough is enough!
“We commend the media for the professionalism and objectivity exhibited before, during and after the elections and appeal to them to continue to uphold the ethics of the profession, just as we charge them to educate and sensitize innocent and peace loving Nigerians on the tenets of democracy which is being daily debased, abused and assaulted by these anti-democratic elements,” Olokoba said.
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