Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s threat that people who snatches ballot box during the elections will lose their lives.
Buhari said this during the national caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He was quoted saying, “snatch a ballot box at the expense of your life”.
Ozekhome, reacting, described the President’s statement as unconstitutional, unpresidential and usurping the powers of INEC and the Police
He said Buhari’s statement shows “his extreme desperation and panicky mindset.”
Ozekhome in a statement made available on Monday pointed out that Section 129(4) of the Act already stipulates 24 years imprisonment for anyone who snatches ballot boxes at an election.
The statement read: “Section 131 of the Electoral Act on the other hand prescribes N1 million fine or 3 years imprisonment for anyone who directly or indirectly inflicts injury on others, or causes harm, violence, or uses duress and undue influence for the purpose of winning an election
“This statement, to say the least, is not only outrageously unpresidential, but it shows his extreme desperation and panicky mindset.
“For the records, it is the president’s own APC party that has so far been involved, to the knowledge of the whole world, in bizarre acts of electoral malpractices during their primaries, leading to an implosively divided party of disparate and inchoate tendencies”.
“All over the world presidents are known to be extremely cautious and restrained, even when others do not.
“This is because a president is supposed to approximate the highest ideals, morals and nobility of the national psyche, ethos and consciousness.”
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