Unified Nigerian Youth Forum (UNYF) has warned that those calling for removal of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, are planning to scuttle the 2023 general elections.
Addressing newsmen, yesterday, in Kaduna, president of the forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, said adoption of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) was already giving election riggers sleepless nights.
He regretted that in spite of giant strides recorded under Mahmood, especially in the area of cutting edge technology to ensure credible polls, some groups and individuals have chosen to play deaf and blind to the realities.
Kazeem said: “The activities of certain groups of persons purporting to be promoting the interest of the North and Nigeria, but actually working for enemies of the country have come to notice. These persons have continued to falsely accuse and demand resignation and sacking of INEC boss for carrying out his mandate. We believe that those behind this charade are nothing but paid agents and goons of selfish and unpatriotic politicians seeking to manipulate next year’s general elections at all cost.
“We dispel in strong terms the rumours making the rounds that the INEC boss and his management team have morally compromised because of pressure from political parties to deactivate BIVAS. For the record, BIVAS and all the electoral reforms currently in place have been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC (All Progressives Congress) and National Assembly.”
MEANWHILE, Building Blocks For Peace Foundation has offered path for peaceful polls come next year. To avoid large-scale violence that was witnessed in previous elections, it advised that political actors, especially presidential candidates, must begin to speak on concrete ways of ensuring inclusivity in governance and national unity.
The organisation warned that if urgent interventions are not made to address emerging early warnings, the 2023 polls might be violent.
Its Executive Director, Rafiu Adeniran Lawal, who gave the warning at a media briefing in Abuja over the weekend, said the decisions by the ruling party to adopt same faith ticket and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) handing over its nomination to a Northern were generating tensions across the length and breadth of the country.
He stated that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons across the federation should also agitate all and sundry.
Referencing a report that said some 6,145,000 small arms were in the hands of civilians and non-state actors, Lawal cautioned that if the situation is not managed well, it could affect the elections.
The foundation stressed the need for the entire peace and security architecture of the country to be rejigged for safety of INEC officials, voters, observers and citizens as well as sanctity of the entire process.
Source: Guardian.ng
