When it became clear to us that General Muhhammadu Buhari and his party the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the illegal removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Honourable Justice Walter Onnoghen, were planning to rig this elections we rose and opposed this move calling for the CJN to be recognised. We had seen the handwriting on the wall as the clear motive of the ruling APC was to ensure that the elections are as shoddy as can be just for the President to be sworn in, with the belief that the courts will be pliant having a CJN that was appointed by the President undeservedly.
The elections came and despite several concerted and calculated efforts to frustrate INEC, the elections finally came and the worst form of election robbery was meted on the Nigerian people. Votes were merely allotted in many parts of the Northwest and Northeast as no voting took place in those places. It is an insult to the Nigerian people that INEC would allow an election in which voters were intimidated, maimed and even killed to stand. That INEC chose to go ahead with the show of shame at the International Conference Center in Abuja is a public rape on the sensibilities of the people of Nigeria, even when it had failed to provide credible explanations on what had actually transpired in the polling centers where ballot papers were snatched or burnt. The military was strongly deployed in Kwara, Benue, Kogi, Plateau and Lagos states to provide cover for those who stole the people’s mandate and cooked up results. There were countless irregularities in Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Borno and Yobe where card readers were completely jettisoned to allow for fake figures to be imputed onto results sheets.
The industrial scale of thumb printing that went on in several parts of Nigeria is unprecedented in our flawed election conduct. That some thugs constituted themselves into a government in a society governed by laws, and prevented legitimate citizens from exercising their franchise, makes a mockery of the entire law enforcement system and to rub it in the government and its agencies have turned a blind eye to this situation.
The international community also disappointed us, giving their stamp of approval for the sham and scam that were held in Nigeria in the name of elections. How on earth could an election in which scores of people were killed and hundreds injured be described as “peaceful” by an international community that had many of its observers scared off collation centers across Nigeria where the robbery was perfected? How could our friends and partners not hold a government, which is responsible for the security of lives and property, to account for the loss of lives and threats to lives and livelihoods all over southern Nigeria? Were they really afraid of bodybags?
There is a need for well-meaning citizens and friends of Nigeria to make a clear statement to those who think they can trample on the will of Nigerians and dance on the graves of our dead loved ones lost to this process, that “enough is enough”. The Occupy Nigeria Movement herby call on all well-meaning Nigerians to come out and join us in a peaceful but very firm protest scheduled to take place as follows:
Date: Monday 4th March, 2019
Time: 9:00am
Venue: Unity Fountain, Abuja.
Dress code: Black Tops and any other attire
The people of Nigeria are under attack and our future generations are at stake and we all must rise up and take back our country from those who wish to hold her back. Occupy Nigeria, joins millions of Nigerians to demand that:
- Voting must be conducted for the 5million disenfranchised Nigerians, which is the population size of several countries.
- In the spirit of transparency INEC must open its back end servers to stakeholders.
- All military presence in the South-south and/Southeast be withdrawn immediately.
- The perpetrators of violence in the Niger Delta be brought to book to account for their crimes.
- The thugs who harassed voters in Lagos against fellow Nigerians be brought to account for their crimes.
- The international community should call the ruling party to order as Nigerians will not accept a president that has not been duly elected by majority of Nigerians.
