Akin Osuntokun, Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to account for over N300 billion allocated to the body to conduct the 2023 general election.
Osuntokun made this call at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, demanding a thorough investigation into the finances of the election umpire during the general election conducted on February 25 and March 11 this year.
Apart from the over N300 billion allocated to the commission, the LP chieftain said the investigation should cover other donations INEC received from other development partners.
He was reacting to last month’s last month’s European Commission Union Election Observer Mission report which scored INEC low in its conduct of the general elections.
Barry Andrews, Chief Observer and member of the European Parliament, who presented the preliminary findings of the EU EOM report in Abuja on June 28, said INEC has damaged Nigerians’ trust in the electoral process in the manner it conducted the election.
Even though the Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, have punctured the EU report as tissue of lies, LP has demanded the removal of INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, investigation and prosecution.
The commission, through the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, described the LP demands ridiculous, warning the opposition party to desist from maligning the election umpire.
The commission had declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the winner of the February 28 election ahead of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and LP, respectively. The losers have now gone to court to challenge the results.
Speaking to journalists yesterday Osuntokun called for the removal of Yakubu, investigation of funds used during the election, and ultimately the prosecution of the commission’s boss.
He also demanded punishment of all INEC staff whom he accused of compromising the election, affirming that the EU report was in agreement with the thinking of many Nigerians about the election that the election fell short of expectation.
He also affirmed his trust in the judiciary to set aside the results announced by INEC declaring Tinubu as the winner.
Osuntokun said, “We also demand unequivocally, the immediate dismissal from office and prosecution of Prof Mahmoud Yakubu and the commencement of forensic financial investigation into the expenditure of budgeted disbursements and donors’ funds received by INEC.
“This is in addition to the N300 billion appropriated from the national purse as well as other funds and materials received from International donor agencies.’
“The Labour Party and the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation condemn vehemently the negative and jaundiced responses on the EU report and other election observers’ reports by the spokesperson of APC administration and other ill-informed persons, which are totally in discord with the mood of the nation at this time and which also present an embarrassing contrast to their selective celebration of the 2019 election reports from these same observer groups.
“It is now only logical, bolstered by the final observer group reports that the international community take immediate and appropriate punitive action against Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, Barrister Festus Okoye and other top administrative and field staff of INEC directly complicit in the desecration of these elections.
‘’We advise those who have deployed hired ‘protesters’ to the offices of the EU in respect of their election report, to desist from any further wastage of public funds as the objective of intimidation is without basis and has failed from the beginning because indeed, the irregularities in the election were so excessively glaring with bitter personal and reported experiences by the overwhelming majority of Nigerians.
‘’At this juncture, there is no doubt that Nigerians and the International Community expect the judiciary, to critically examine the evidence, the law, and the processes of these flawed elections, in arriving at a legally correct, and overwhelmingly acknowledgeable verdict,’’ Osuntokun stated.
