The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has flayed the conduct of the 2019 general election, saying it was the worst in Nigeria’s history.
The President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, made the group’s displeasure known during a mega rally tagged “Save Our Democracy” in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said that the election was characterised by massive rigging and was a clear rape of the nation’s democracy.
Shettima said that instead of making progress, the country was regressing in the area of free and fair elections as shown in the conduct of the 2019 general election.
He said that going by how the election was conducted, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was justified in seeking redress in court.
The AYCF president said, “We thought by now we would have gotten to another level, but from all indications, we are going backward as a country as far as election is concerned.
“2019 elections was characterised with mass rigging and that is abuse on the sensitivity of Nigerians. It will go down in history as the worst as it clearly shows a rape on democracy.
“If you look very well, people came out en masse and voted for what they wanted. But from all indications, you can see that the second election recorded poor turnout which is a clear indication that Nigerians were not happy.
“In term of integrity, you can see that no integrity because serious flop was recorded during the election. We are happy that the flag bearer of People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar has gone to court.
“We won’t sit down and allow Nigerians to be run as if we are in the Banana Republic.
“INEC declared elections inconclusive in states where PDP is leading but very enthusiastic to declare states where APC won. We are not going to encourage one party system in Nigeria because their plan is to kill the opposition”.
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