Press Statement

Politicians Responsible For Electoral Frauds – Union

Nigerians have been urged to hold politicians responsible for monumental electoral frauds that have continued to stunt the growth of democracy and dented the country’s image abroad.

In a statement issued in Lagos, the Secretary-General of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Barrister Solomon Onaghinon, stated that politicians desperate to acquire power and the attendant wealth accruing therefrom did not only rig elections but also engage in ritual and cult activities to achieve electoral goals.

“We have all read in the newspapers how politicians turned democracy upside down during the 2007 elections and how they rigged the recent bye-elections in Ekiti and Ondo states,” he added.

Onaghinon described as unfortunate the statement credited to the Residential Electoral Commissioner in Enugu State, Mr. Austin Okojie, who alleged that civil servants “caused all the problems we experienced in past elections.”

The ASCSN chief scribe wondered if it was civil servants that dumped heaps of electoral materials in tick forests in 2007, snatched ballot boxes at polling centres, stuffed ballot boxes with illegal votes in the residences of prominent politicians, maimed and murdered political opponents.

“Is it civil servants that batter election monitors and forge election results at police stations?” he asked.

Onaghinon also stated that it was not civil servants that had rejected the recommendations of Muhammadu Uwais Panel on electoral reforms designed to improve the electoral system in Nigeria.

“For instance, is it civil servants that rejected the recommendation of Justice Uwais that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be appointed by the National Judicial Council and not the President in order to reduce electoral malpractices?”

“Is it also civil servants that rejected the recommendation that six months period should be allowed between the election and the swearing-in so that electoral petitions could be disposed off to prevent those who rig election from assuming office?”

“Indeed, is it civil servants that are planning to scrap States Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) so that INEC conducts all Federal, States and Local Governments elections in order to further muddle up the entire system?” he wondered.

Onaghinon enjoined sycophants bent on dancing to the tunes of their pay-masters to realize that Nigerians were not fools but intelligent human beings who knew the fraudsters masquerading as politicians and who had brought the image of the country into disrepute before the international community because of their resort to banditry in their quest for power.

SOLOMON A. ONAGHINON ESQ.

Secretary-General