The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Chief Osita Okechukwu, has advised Nigerians to allow the election tribunal adjudicate presidential petitions, by following due process.
Okechukwu said this in a statement he issued in Enugu on Sunday, entitled: “Let’s Not Poison the Chalice of Future Adoption of Electronic Voting in Nigeria.”
He said that there was need for caution as it would be contemptuous and dangerous for spin-doctors to descend into the arena, hauling all manner of invective narratives, without giving the tribunal benefit of doubt, NAN reports.
“Hence, unwittingly or wittingly poisoning the chalice of future adoption of electronic voting in Nigeria,’’ he said
Okechukwu, who is an All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, commended Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for following the best tradition of democracy by heading to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to seek justice.
According to him, this being the most honourable option in this circumstance, all lovers of democracy should allow due process and rule of law, which the tribunal epitomises, to resolve the matter at hand in the fullness of time.
The VON DG said: “Let’s put bigotry out of the front burner, leave Independent National Electoral Commission alone and allow the tribunal.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is a veteran of this process and many became governors via the tribunal as well.
“My clarion call for caution is predicated on the danger of negative narrative post elections, such as the one bandied 40 years ago after the 1979 Presidential Election between Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, both of blessed memory.
“Which up to date lingers with sour grape and some are still wringing their hands with bitterness.
“Secondly, this caution is also grounded on the fact that electronic voting conducted by the Nigeria Bar Association, one of the stellar associations, which many hoped will conduct a seamless electronic voting ended in court.
“We cannot live in induced fear. We should therefore be circumspect, let’s not taint our fledgling democracy especially when the spin-doctors are still brandishing unofficial presidential election result as authentic,” he said.
According to him, “a lesson we must imbibe is that one party has won the presidency; another has tremendously harvested more states than it has hitherto.
“Therefore, we must move on so as to minimise the sadness in the land,’’ Okechukwu said.
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