Kogi/Bayelsa Elections: A Wave Of Terror Is Threatening Our Democracy – Secondus

Leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr.
Uche Secondus, has said that the nation’s democracy is under
threat, following the manner in which the November 16th elections
in Kogi and Bayelsa States were conducted and the outcomes that
followed.

The National Chairman of the PDP called for the cancellation of
the governorship elections in both states, insisting that the
elections were marred by violence, which led to several deaths.

Mr Secondus, who addressed journalists after a meeting of the
party’s board of trustees in Abuja, stated that the party has video
evidence of malpractices committed during the conduct of the
elections.

Below is a full speech by Mr. Secondus, on the issues
stemming from the governorship polls in both Bayelsa and Kogi
states.

November 21, 2019

Text Of Press Conference by the National Chairman Of The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, on the Position of
the PDP on the Violence, Killings, Abuse of Human Rights and
Rigging in the November 16th Kogi And Bayelsa Governorship
Elections.

Gentlemen of the Press,

We have invited you this afternoon to alert Nigerians and the
international community that all is not well with our nation. A
wave of terror is threatening our democracy; our constitutional
order, national cohesion and safety of our citizens are now as at
stake.

As the world witnessed, the official conspiracies, bloodletting
and mindless killing of innocent citizens by agents of the All
Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration in connivance with
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to aid the
forceful seizure of power in the November 16th Kogi and Bayelsa
State governorship elections, clearly show that our democracy is
under severe attack.

In an apparent organized attack, government-controlled Police
and military, working for the APC, deployed dangerous assault
weapons, including helicopters to coordinate the violent invasion
of polling units with maximum force; shooting, killing and maiming
unarmed civilians, who were called out by government to perform
their civic responsibilities at the elections.

The world watched with horror as killer security agents
brutalized voters and carted away ballot boxes to government
facilities were results were written in favour of the APC and
handed to a heavily compromised INEC, which has become part of the
crime, to announce.

From the report reaching our party, no fewer than 30 innocent
compatriots were killed and many more injured in this organized
crime against humanity by the APC, the Police and INEC.

The only crime of the citizens was their expressed determination
to vote for the candidates of their choice as governors of Kogi and
Bayelsa States as clearly manifested in the results from the
polling centers before the forceful seizure of the electoral
processes.

Most distressing is the gruesome incineration of one of our
party’s woman leaders in Kogi State, Mrs. Acheju Abuh, in her home
by APC thugs, a crime that was abetted by unscrupulous security
agents.

Our party holds that this electoral fraud and crime against
humanity, including established culpable homicide committed by the
APC, security agents and INEC cannot be allowed to pass.

The leadership of our great party has thoroughly reviewed
incontrovertible pieces of documentary of evidence including video
clips, graphic pictures, witness testimonies, manipulated results
sheets, proofs of compromising of INEC officials and other hard
facts to establish the culpability of the Police and INEC in the
electoral fraud as well as the unforgiveable culpable homicide and
crime against humanity in the elections.

The PDP also restates that we have the details of the roles
played by the Police high command and the INEC as well as other
security and INEC officials in this election. Those details will be
made public at the appropriate forum and time.

It is instructive to call the attention of Nigerians and the
international community to the fact that since the election, the
President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government has failed to
take any concrete steps to investigate the issues and bring
culprits to book. The Police and INEC had also failed to take any
decisive action to arrest and investigate their officers accused of
involvement in various crimes in the elections.

We have also noted frantic efforts by the police hierarchy to
explain away the crimes and sweep the killings under the
carpet.

These only validate apprehension that the invasion of polling
unit, killings and alteration of results were part of the
premeditated power-grabbing designs of the APC.

The PDP states without equivocation that invasion of polling
units and killing of voters to manipulate electoral results cannot
be allowed in our democratic space. If the APC’s political
brigandage that happened in Kogi and Bayelsa State is allowed to
stand, such would be extended to other elections including the 2023
general elections and that would be a death knell to our
democracy.

It is therefore a sacred duty we all owe our nation to pursue a
redress for this crime within the ambits of our national and
international laws.

In this regard, the PDP calls for the outright cancellation of
the governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States as they are
products of bloodshed and do not reflect the true wishes and
aspiration of the people of the states.

We also demand the immediate cancellation of the Kogi West
Senatorial election. This is the biggest fraud of the century.

The PDP, standing with millions of Nigerians also holds that the
INEC and the Police high command must be made answer charges of
electoral fraud and crime against humanity at the appropriate
quarters.

The PDP therefore calls on the international community as well
as international organizations including, the United Nations (UN),
the European Union (EU), Commonwealth of Nations, the African Union
(AU), ECOWAS to immediately impose sanctions, including travel
bans, on the INEC and the Police high commands for abusing their
offices and allegedly aiding or allowing acts that led to electoral
fraud and violence in the elections.

The primary duty of INEC and the Police is to ensure free, fair
and credible election. This they observed in the breach as even
reported by agents, voters, stakeholders and independent observers
in the elections. They must therefore be made to face the
consequences to serve as deterrent to others.

The leadership of the PDP once more commends the people of Kogi
and Bayelsa States for their resilience and resistance against
oppressive forces during the election. Such patriotism will never
be in vain.

Our leadership also condoles with the families of compatriots
who were murdered by the APC. Indeed, their death can never be in
vain as the mandate for which they were killed will be surely
retrieved.

Moreover, somebody someday will bear the full sentence of guilt
at the appropriate quarters, be it within the ambit of our domestic
laws or those of the international laws.

In the meantime, we urge all members of the PDP to remain strong
and undeterred as we collective exert ourselves in the defence of
our nation’s democracy.

Thank you and God bless.