The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of perfecting procedural manipulation of the 2027 general elections by putting in place a smart set of systems and manipulative processes to effectively gain absolute control and command of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
HURIWA said one of the procedural manipulations of the system is the deliberate appointment of well known All Progressives Congress (APC) card-carrying members as National Commissioners.
It also accused President Tinubu of compelling second term seeking PDP serving governors to enlist in APC as decoys for writing the results of the elections in their jurisdictions.
A statement by Emmanuel Onwubiko, National coordinator of HURIWA, said that the development formed the basis why the National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje openly boasted that his political party will win over two-thirds of the States of the Federation and keep a commanding control and leadership of the National Assembly.
The Rights group expressed the hope that the organised civil society organizations would be able to put measures in place to expose the apparent well-contrived and well-funded election manipulation procedures of the ruling APC.
According to HURIWA; “By illegally staging a regime change in Rivers State and unconstitutionally suspending the governor Siminalayi Fubara so as to force him into a sudden surrender, is a well-coordinated strategy by the APC to rig the result of the 2027 election in Rivers State even before the first ballot is cast.
“These public outbursts of the handpicked National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress that more PDP Governors and lawmakers would move into APC soon is not a fluke but a revelation of the inner workings of the National ruling party and their electoral strategy for 2027.
“The APC is plotting to establish a China-styled communist one party state in Nigeria. The blueprint for turning Nigeria into an authoritarianism is already being systematically enforced by the APC,” it stressed.
HURIWA also alluded to the assertion by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) of the massive infiltration of the Election management body by members of the All Progressives Congress.
It therefore tasked President Tinubu to review his appointment of several Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) known to be members of the ruling APC.
HURIWA affirmed that SERAP also rightly referenced Nigeria’s obligations under international frameworks such as the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, and recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Committee, saying that both stressed the importance of having independent and impartial electoral bodies.
HURIWA therefore condemned the plot by the APC-led federal government to compromise the 2027 general elections and particularly criticised the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission for obviously resolving to bequeath to the nation the legacies of heavily compromised election management systems.
It also condemned the National Assembly for playing politics with a set of suggested electoral reforms which if legislated into laws of Nigeria could change the notorious narratives of constant manipulation and mismanagement of the general elections in Nigeria, stressing that; “INEC under Yakubu Mahmud has become the playfield of Tinubu’s APC”.
HURIWA equally condemned the APC for also actively financing the internal schism in Labour Party and PDP so as to disorganise and create unresolvable conflicts for political opposition and weaken the opposition structures.
The Rights group also described the choreographed defection into the All Progressives Congress of PDP serving governors and National Assembly members as another angle of the larger conspiratorial agenda aimed at manipulation of the next general elections by the APC.
