The Brigandage In Ekiti Must Stop Now – Atiku  

BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday said that the current administration came into being because the preceding Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government ensured free and fair elections at all levels.

Atiku, who stated this while reacting to the brigandage taking place in Ekiti ahead of Saturday governorship elections, expressed serious concern over the images coming out of Ekiti in the last few hours.

Atiku stressed that behaviours such as these are an uncivil assault on democracy and falls short of democratic best practices and therefore admonished the Federal Government to do everything within its powers to douse the tension being generated over the governorship election in Ekiti State.

In a statement on Wednesday, Atiku further said; “Having been a beneficiary of such propriety, it is incumbent on the Federal Government not to deprive others of the ladder it was provided by its predecessors.

“Free, fair and credible elections are not a privilege. They are a right! The peaceful congregating of the good people of Ekiti State, be they members of the All Progressive Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party or of any other party, must be allowed by the Federal Government”.

The former Vice President observed that it is not in the place of government to harass, intimidate, hound and humiliate political opponents in an election.

In his words; “What government should do is to provide a level playing ground and guarantee the security of the electorate and the principal political actors in the election.

“The immunity that a president enjoys under the constitution is the same immunity being enjoyed by a state governor, thus it is an aberration to democratic norms and practices in a federal system of government that one layer of government should muscle out another government on account of political differences.

“The democracy and fundamental human rights that Nigerians enjoy today was earned at a very high price.

Instructions must be immediately given to all law enforcement bodies on the ground in Ekiti State to act in the best interest of Nigeria,” Atiku insist. 

He also said that anything that will put democracy in jeopardy in Ekiti or anywhere else in Nigeria should be stopped forthwith and therefore urged those with powers over the security forces to be aware that the world is watching, stressing that democracy and freedom are inalienable rights of the Nigerian people which the Peoples Democratic Party guaranteed for 16 years.

“It is too late in the day for anyone to think they can put that genie back into the bottle”, he said.

“It is for this reason that I welcomes the call by the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres for the reactivation of the National Peace Committee as an instrument to stem the continued escalation of violence and killings in Nigeria.

“Government should take a cue from what the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API) is doing to stem violence in many states of the North east.”