Victor EzejaEastern Bar Forum (EBF) has called for cancellation of the 2023 general elections, arguing that the exercise was substantially marred by irregularities across Nigeria.
The EBF, an association of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) branches in the Old Eastern region of the country, made the call in a communique issued at the end of its first quarterly meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Saturday, 25th March, 2023.
In the communique signed the EBF governor, Chief Uba Anene, the group noted with with dismay that apart from the 1983 and the 2007 elections, “Nigeria has not had an election in its recent electoral history as embarrassing as the 2023 general elections.”
The group stressed that the level of irregularities and violence unleashed on citizens during the elections, especially in Lagos and Rivers State, were such that “any announced outcome could not reasonably be accepted as an expression of the sovereign will of Nigerian citizens obtained in a free and fair poll.”
It lamented that there was “open and brazen disenfranchisement of Nigerian citizens from a particular ethnic group” and people who looked like them, coupled with physical violence visited on them and their properties and businesses in places such as Lagos, adding that such casts “serious cloud over the legitimacy of any outcome of the purported elections.”
The group also accused INEC of failing to adhere to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and its election guidelines midway into the polls for “inexplicable reasons,” adding that such raises suspicion about the integrity of the electoral body in the exercise.
“The 2023 general elections was marred with so much irregularities and violence, especially in Lagos and Rivers State, that any announced outcome could not reasonably be accepted as an expression of the sovereign will of Nigerian citizens obtained in a free and fair poll.
“The open and brazen disenfranchisement of Nigerian citizens from a particular ethnic group and, unfortunately, any others that looked like them by primitive, brutal physical violence aimed at their persons, properties and businesses in places such as Lagos State casts a serious cloud over the legitimacy of any outcome of the purported elections.
“That INEC’s inexplicable abandonment of its own guidelines, promises and even the Electoral Act 2022 midway through the elections cast a justified cloud of suspicion on the integrity of the conduct of the elections as well as on its purported outcome.
“The mere dismissal of the failure of a fundamental aspect of the transparency and integrity of the Presidential elections by the contrived failure of the BVAS upload of Presidential Polling Unit Results as a ‘technical glitch’ does not ring true at all but strongly suggests a deliberate sabotage of the system, especially since the National Assembly elections polling unit results were easily uploaded to the INEC portal at the same material time,” part of the communique read.
The group further observed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) alllowed the uploading of results of National Assembly elections but at the same time failed for that of presidential election, adding that it cannot be explained away “as a mere technical glitch.”
“Nigerians deserve a more plausible explanation for the strange development,” the group said.
“We cannot pretend not to know that Nigeria’s 2023 elections is but the butt of jokes in the International Press with the Washington Post quoting Mathew Page of Chatham House’s Africa Program as accusing INEC of making both deliberate and unintentional mistakes and Aljazeera running a program titled ‘How violence robs Nigerians of their votes.’
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“The EBF is outraged by the violence and ethnic hatred incited by members of the ruling party and deployed against the Igbo people living in Lagos, a part of their own fatherland, for the purpose of denying them their constitutional rights to vote for candidates of their own choice and preference.”
The noted with concern that actions trailing the outcome of the elections show that Nigeria is becoming more ethnically polarised, adding that even members of the bar are left out.
“While this can be expected and even excused at times, we should not thereby close our eyes and minds to the need for a fact based enquiry into an objective truth with regard to what actually transpired in the 2023 elections which left Nigerians shocked, confused and traumatised.
“In view of the foregoing, the EBF is of the firm view that the 2023 general elections was fatally flawed and its announced outcome does not in any way, shape or form reflect the will of the citizens of Nigeria expressed in a free, fair, transparent and credible election and should therefore be cancelled and a rerun under a new, truly independent electoral body to be composed of men/women of integrity nominated in equal numbers by the four largest political parties in Nigeria,” the communique added.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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