The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its handling of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, saying that the commission’s failures enabled electoral brigandage.
Afenifere’s position is contained in a communique issued on Wednesday after a general meeting of the group in Akure, Ondo State.
According to the organisation, INEC failed to comply with the electoral guidelines in the conduct of the polls.
“The deliberate non-compliance by the Commission with these mandatory guidelines encouraged electoral brigandage at the polling units which included the destruction of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of figures and swapping of votes of candidates at the coalition centres by amended and outlawed manual procedures which rendered the 25th February 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections flawed in several respects as confirmed by local and international observers.
“The results of the lawful votes at the election available to the Afenifere through credible sources confirm that His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party won the said election and we thus support his decision challenging the contrary Declaration by the INEC,” Afenifere said.
The pan-Yoruba group insisted that Obi won the election, thus “denounced in strong terms and dissociated Afenifere from any congratulatory message in the name of the Organisation or howsoever to any candidate as illegally declared by the INEC.”
“Afenifere reiterates that for equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence, the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a person of its Southern part and specifically the South-East,” the communique read in part.
Afenifere called on Nigerians to troop out en masse and participate fully in the governorship and houses of assembly elections coming up on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
The Herald can report that INEC has since rescheduled the election to March 18, 2023.