F
ive human rights activists have tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from participating in the February 2014 presidential election for flouting the Electoral Act which prescribes N1bn as the maximum amount a presidential candidate could incur as electioneering expenses.
The rights activists, whose names were given as Debo Adeniran, Lanre Suraj, Femi Aborisade, Malachy Ugwummadu and Wale Ogunade called for the sanctioning of both President Jonathan and the PDP, and also slammed the police authorities for their indifference to the open breach of the law.
According to section 91(9) of the said Act, “An individual or other entity shall not donate more than N1m to any candidate.” It was further added in sub-section 10 of the same section that a presidential candidate “who knowingly acts in contravention of this section commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a maximum fine of N1m or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.”
Section 91(2) of the same Act states that, “The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1bn.”
Speaking in an interview with the PUNCH on Thursday, Adeniran, who is the Chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), asserted that the donation by PDP governors, government agencies and public agencies to the Jonathan campaign war chest was distasteful. He described their action as running contrary to the call by the Federal Government on Nigerians to brace for austerity measures.
The CACOL leader went on to state that the donation by players in the power sector amounted to forcing Nigerians who had been made to pay for electricity they were not provided with, to donate to Jonathan’s re-election bid.
Hear him, “The donation of over N21bn is a demonstration of immorality in government. This is a clear violation of the Electoral Act that specifies just N1bn for expenditure in campaigns. Then that many of those who donated are government agencies accentuates the recklessness and impunity that governs the minds of our rulers.
“In a country where the government is asking the people to tighten their belts, its agencies are donating several millions of naira.
“These also included the people in the power sector who have not been able to supply electricity which the people have paid for. This is to say that people are being forced to contribute to the campaign of the incumbent regime and that is another level of immorality.
“INEC needs to bar Jonathan and his party from participating in the general elections next year because they knowingly contravened the law governing elections in the country.”
Adeniran demanded the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the breach, saying, “It is not direct robbery that the police can intervene without being invited. It is the duty of the ICPC to set up the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit that has the mandate to call to question, all the authorities that are violating transaction and procurement rules like it is being perpetrated by Jonathan and his political party.
“We expect the ICPC to move to check these financial shenanigans. The ICPC does not need a petition before they could act,” he added.
For Aborisade, the police authorities did not require any report or invitation from any quarter to commence investigation as they were fully represented at the PDP dinner/fund-raiser on Saturday.
His words, “should not give us the impression that they are only there to protect the interest of the ruling party at the centre.
“They are to investigate and prosecute crimes committed against the law of Nigeria. The 1999 Constitution and the electoral law have been breached and the police are empowered to so act,” said Aborisade, who is also a lawyer.
While making reference to section 4 of the Police Act to corroborate his stance, Aborisade advised INEC to go ahead and disqualify Jonathan and the PDP.
He said, “They are part and parcel of the Nigerian society. They are fully aware. The police were well represented at the donation. They witnessed it and they do not require any other form of report from anybody. It is public knowledge and they ought to have acted appropriately.
“But not only the police, even INEC ought to disqualify PDP from presenting a candidate and ought to disqualify the candidate of the PDP because they have flouted, in a very disgraceful and condemnable manner, the Electoral Act.
“I think the INEC should introduce sanity into the Electoral process because with that kind of donation, they are merely saying they can induce every voter so that they can win the 2015 election.
“Our elections should not be monetised; they should be based on issues or ideas that can uplift the lot of our people as contained in the constitution.”
Still on the matter, Ugwummadu lamented that the donations had demonstrated that “Nigeria has now become a huge theatre of absurdity and one in which clear criminal actions and activities have now worn a garb of comedy.”
He asserted that, “On the day of the donation which was streamed live on the television, I personally called the leadership of several law enforcement agencies in this country to tell them that they don’t need a complainant to begin to arrest those people who were donating.
“And the fact that the arrest didn’t happen, even as I knew it would not happen, clearly describes the poverty of the situation we find ourselves which is indeed hopeless.
“We are now at the last bus stop before anarchy – that bus stop where 18-year-old girls are now enrolled as suicide bombers in legions; where crimes and criminalities are perpetrated with impunity and encouraged by the ruling political party,” he pointed out.
The activist categorically requested INEC to disqualify the PDP and Jonathan from participating in the presidential election, saying “they have been involved in a clear case of criminality.”
コメント