By Jennifer Y Omiloli
An organisation named Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), has reacted to the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and the conduct of presidential and National Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
DayBreak had earlier reported that President Buhari was on Wednesday morning declared winner of the presidential election ahead of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
However, the National President of the AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, in a statement on Thursday morning, expressed deep regret over the outcome of the polls.
They described the election as a charade, adding that INEC and its Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, played out the script of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The statement said, “We have observed with deep regrets how the Presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted and we wish to express our disappointment with INEC and the ruling APC for their clear case of connivance. And wish to state as follows:
“That INEC, in acting out the script of the ruling APC deliberately postponed for elections to create room for easy manipulation by the government in power.
“That thugs were used to defend over-voting, especially in the some southern States, to enable the ruling party do whatever it wanted with the result sheets.
“That in the Northern parts of the country, voting was either delayed or voters’ list was compromised in favor of the ruling APC. This is a bad precedence for free and fair elections.
“That voters other than those of the ruling party were intimidated openly by agents of the ruling party in connivance with other election official.
“In nearly 90% cases the list of registered voters were far below the number of votes cast across the North and Southern parts of this country.
“That there has so far been pedestrian arguments in a subtle attempt to justify the intimidation and harassment of voters in almost all the polling units in the country.
“There were way too many election irregularities to warrant the false claim of electoral victory by President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC.
“On the whole, we find this election an unacceptable means of the imposition of an incumbent President and the intimidation of opposition elements who are in support a candidate like Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
“This election is a sham and it should not only be roundly condemned but outrightly rejected.
“We call on all lovers of Nigeria democracy to take all legitimate steps in ensuring that a more transparent step is taken in the spirit of fairness and balance, by handing letting the true winner be. We cannot afford any compromise at this point in the history our nation.”
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