The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Akwa Ibom State Branch, has called for thorough investigation and prosecution of those found culpable of election violence in the just concluded re-run elections in Essien Udim local government area of the state.
The call came following the report by the state police command that it had arrested about 79 suspected political thugs in connection with purported violence in the rerun elections.
The state Chairman of CLO, Otuekong Franklyn Isong during a press conference on Thursday, in Uyo, the state capital, said Nigeria had remained backward politically because of weak legislations to prosecute perpetrators of electoral violence.
According to him, “one thing that has kept Nigeria down politically is due to inability to prosecute those who committed electoral violence or malpractice. If we’ve been allowing the law to take its course on these offenders, by now we would have advanced in democracy and Nigeria would have been sanitized.
“Nigeria cannot say that there has been anyone standing trial on account of election malpractice right from 1999 to 2020, even when we had violence in 2011 elections, the then president set up pre and post election committees to look into what happened during the campaigns and the elections proper. The committee even came to Akwa Ibom state, but uptill now nothing had been heard of the report.
“In Essien Udim rerun elections, we heard that police arrested 79 suspected political thugs. We want to see those people investigated, arraigned and charged to court, so that the system will be sanitized and it will serve as deterrent to those who would allow themselves to be used to perpetrate violence and their sponsors too. But if we fail to do that, we will hear same story repeatedly and we will be moving in circles,” he said.
Comrade Isong also expressed his reservations on the report that the arrested suspected political thugs have been released, saying if the report was true, then democracy is endangered.
”Several media reports have quoted the State INEC REC, Mr Mike Igini, as saying that the Police has released the 79 suspected political thugs arrested in connection with the electoral violence during the re-run, if the report is true, then it is unfortunate for democracy,” he said.
On the statement credited to the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr. Mike Igini on Channels Television, that election results in Akwa Ibom state were handwritten, the CLO boss said Igini should have revealed the years the results were handwritten and made public the names of those behind the electoral fraud to substantiate his claims.
He argued that Igini occupying a sensitive position of REC had all the necessary information and should go ahead to expose it to the public and not make a blanket statement.
His words, “By virtue of Igini’s office, he has seen so many documents regarding his allegations or assertions. If he says that elections in Akwa Ibom state are always handwritten, let him tell us the years these were done and the period we started having a reverse based on the facts available. But to make a blanket statement is just to keep us in the dark.”
