The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello is unhappy with the United States Government’s decision to place a visa Ban on some individuals that allegedly rigged the November 2019 gubernatorial election in the state.
The US government had announced the decision in a release on Monday, adding that alleged election riggers in the 2019 Bayelsa gubernatorial election and the forthcoming Edo and Ondo gubernatorial elections were affected.
However, Bello decried the lack of fair hearing for the affected individuals.
The Kogi governor disclosed this in a letter addressed to the American Ambassador and signed by the Secretary to the Government of Kogi State, Mrs Folashade Arike Ayoade.
He furrther charged the American governnment to accord greater empathy, more civility and much less disruption to nascent democracies such as Nigeria.
“The Kogi State Government became aware of a United States Government list of individuals who received US visa restrictions for alleged electoral malpractices via a Press Statement to that effect posted on your Embassy website,” the letter read in part.
“In your own words, the still-unnamed individuals are cited as guilty of ‘acts of violence, intimidation, or corruption that harmed Nigerians and undermined the democratic process.’ They are also alleged to ‘have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights.
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“You also noted in the statement that the sanctions are derived from unspecified misconducts by the said individuals which extend from the February/March 2019 General Elections in Nigeria through the off-cycle November 2019 gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa to the as yet unheld governorship contests in Edo and Ondo States. Please note that for the purposes of this protest letter we are only interested in the citations to the extent that they are referable to Kogi State and her citizens.
“For the most part, we concede that elections in Nigeria are complex affairs which will continue to require improvements for the foreseeable future. The 2019 Kogi State Gubernatorial Election was also not without its challenges. However, it is also crystal clear from critical and composite analyses of the records (official, media, observers, etc) of the November 16, 2019 polls that regrettable incidents were limited to a few polling units, while the overwhelmingly larger portions of the ballot were free, fair and credible.”
The letter observed that the few individuals and polittical parties that contested the result of the gubernatorial eleectiion had the opportunity of pursuing their cases to the Supreme Court over a gruelling nine-month period in line with Nigerian law.
He said that this led to the conclusion by the apex court that the election complied with the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The letter further read, “Our concern right now is not the prerogative of the United States of America to impose entry restrictions on anyone, for any or no reason at all, which prerogative remains unfettered, but the room for atrocious misinformation which the timing of your Press Statement and the mention of the Kogi elections therein has created in our state.
“For the February and March 2019 General elections, your advisory came out in July 2019, long before the Supreme Court delivered her judgments in the petitions against those elections, including challenges to President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection. The presumption is that in spite of your intervention, the Supreme Court still discovered no merit in the petitions and dismissed them accordingly.
“In our case, ie, Kogi State, you made the tactical decision to release the update shortly after the Supreme Court delivered judgments in the 4 petitions which made it before her. Amongst a plethora of well-reasoned pronouncements the Apex Court dismissed the said petitions for failing to prove their allegations and for having no ‘scintilla of merit’. The inference from your timing is that the judgment is somehow tainted and did not meet the justice of the case, thereby casting aspersions, not only on the Nigerian Judiciary, but on the second term mandate freely bestowed on His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello by the good people of Kogi State.
“We find this unacceptable, and we protest your presumption. The least you could have done, if indeed this is about democracy and human rights as claimed is create room, no matter how slim, for fair hearing. As it is now, partisan speculations as to who is indicted, who is not and for what, has become cudgels, furiously swung in the media space by all comers. Your action has therefore added abundant grist to the rumour mills and electrified the merchants of fake news.”
He lamented that some stakeholders in Kogi’s political space, including candidates and officials of opposition political parties that lost the elections and could not prove their allegations in court have now latched onto the US visa ban, holding media conferences and making press releases, claiming that the United States has justified their wild allegations and conspiracy theories where the courts and the administrative quarters failed. This, according to him, is utterly regrettable.