Don’t cancel Kano Guber poll – TMG, CISLAC tell INEC
Transition Monitoring Group, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and the Kano State Civil Society Elections Situation Room, on Saturday in Kano called on members of the general public to disregard in totality a faceless group, calling for the cancellation of the recently concluded governorship election in Kano State.
A press statement, jointly signed by Chairman, Transition Monitoring Group, Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya and Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), described the call as an attempt by some faceless group, with unscrupulous intentions to mock the integrity of credible civil society organizations that have been working hard over the years to ensure the credibility and integrity of the electoral process in Nigeria.
“We call on the public to disregard in totality these wild reports making the rounds and using the names of credible organizations and called for the cancelation of the governorship election in Kano State.
“We assure the public that we have neither at any time issued such statements nor been a party to such conclusions. We strongly believe in democratic approaches to settling elections disputes and encourage all who are not satisfied with the process to seek redress in the court of law or Election Petition Tribunal (EPT).”
Furthermore, the group argued that It is critical for the political parties to reposition the party system, with the aim of improving internal democracy in their operations.
“A huge part of the problems of the 2023 elections stem from the lack of internal democracy in the major political parties in Nigeria. As a machinery that brings about leadership in Nigeria, political parties must ensure democratic tenets in their internal operations or may never be able to uphold democracy in Nigeria.”
To this extent, the group recommended that, all potential elections observers should pass through Anti-Corruption agencies screening henceforth, so as to ensure that only prudent and credible organizations are accredited as observers in future elections.
It should be recalled that a group, the Coalition of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of Accredited Domestic Election Observers, Thursday last week, affirmed that the March 18, 2023 Kano State Governorship election was marred by irregularities and violation of the Electoral Act, and therefore called on INEC to urgently review the outcome and retract the outcome.
In a press statement, jointly signed by the Team leader, Comrade Friday Maduka and the Team Secretary, Alhaji Ali Abacha, the Coalition, among others, pointed out that the election was a violation of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines and did not meet up with best democratic practices and principles for free, credible and transparent peaceful elections.
Finally, the Coalition called on INEC to as a matter of national urgency, review the outcome of the election and have a retraction on its position and look in the direction of conducting a supplementary election at the affected areas of over 270,000 cancelled votes in line with our relevant Electoral Laws for the peace and progress of Kano state in particular and Nigeria at large.
