The Congress for Progressive Change ,CPC, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to implement the recommendations made by the Lemu Committee on Post Election crisis.
The panel was set up to look into the unrest that followed the 2011 general elections. Part of its task was to unravel causes of the violence and recommend ways to forestall future occurrence.
CPC, in a statement by its spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin, titled:”Lemu Report: Any hope for its implementation“ said, “As a Party, we call on the Nigerian people to demand the implementation of this report without any further delay. It is in so doing that true democratic values shall be deepened in the Nigerian polity.”
“Sequel to the post-election violence that erupted in some parts of Northern Nigeria after the 2011 general elections, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made spirited efforts to demonize the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and its national leader, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB).
With reference to Reuben Abati’s publication, CPC noted that, “First, a notable journalist and newspaper columnist became a hireling in using his Guardian Newspaper column (on 22nd April, 2011) in disseminating unfounded piece of disinformation about GMB and CPC. He was eventually rewarded – for the hatchet job- with a plum appointed as the Senior Adviser to the President on media and Publicity upon the latter’s inauguration on 29th May, 2011.”
“Second, on the basis of the mendacious scribble of this unscrupulous hireling and with immense state resources, the cyberspace, like the nation space, became engulfed in falsehood about GMB and CPC!
“Third, as a way of giving legal and institutional impetus to its propagandist schemes, the PDP-led Federal Government empanelled on 11th May, 2011 a group of twenty-two (22) eminent Nigerians- in what became known as Lemu committee- to investigate the cause of the Post-election violence. The Panel submitted its report to the Government on 10th October, 2011 containing far-reaching recommendations.
“Whilst the Lemu Committee was still sitting, the police Authority declared at a public forum that: “No fewer than 5,356 people were arrested during and after the April 2011 General Elections in the country for electoral offences. Out of the number, 2,341 were arrested before the polls and 3,015 for post-election violence.” The poser is: What has happened to those apprehended by the Police for perpetrating this heinous crime against humanity? Left off the hook? Remanded in police custody? Being prosecuted in a court of law? Nigerians need to know.
“Meanwhile, aside identifying – as a major cause of electoral violence – existing widespread desire by the people for change as a result of the parlous state of the Nation’s infrastructure and legitimized culture of impunity festered by the PDP rulers since 1999 and previous governments, the Lemu Committee recommended the setting up of Electoral offences’ tribunal.
“In May, 2012 – more than seven months after submission of Lemu report- the PDP-led Federal Government (with much fanfare) adopted the establishment of special electoral offences’ tribunal as part of the implementation of the Lemu panel”
The party lamented that more than nine months after the release of the whitepaper, there has been nothing to show that the outcome of the report and the recommendations are being pursued with pertinacious vigour.
“Indeed, the nonchalance of this regime on this score connotes that: The Jonathan regime did not really intend to unearth the truth about the post-election violence in 2011 but sought to use the eminent Nigerians in the Lemu Panel as pawns to be used to indict CPC and its leader, GMB!
“The Jonathan regime, being the greatest beneficiary of the anomalous electoral system in 2011, that will truly give sovereignty to the Nigerian people.
“The PDP will be unwilling to support any sustainable, expeditious trial of electoral offences because electoral manipulations and infractions have become the reason for its tenacious hold on political power in these thirteen years. “As a Party, we call on the Nigerian people to demand the implementation of this report without any further delay. It is in so doing that true democratic values shall be deepened in the Nigerian polity,” Fashakin said.
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