Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

2023 elections religious, ethnic campaigns: INEC may prosecute Peter Obi, Atiku, Tinubu

133

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

Following the religious and ethnic campaigns evident during the 2023 general elections, speculations are rife that the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) may prosecute Mr. Peter Gregory Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for violating Nigeria’s Electoral Act in their campaigns.

Evidence shows that all the presidential candidates engaged in either ethnic, sectional or religious-motivated pitch for votes ahead of the election, in what is a clear violation of Nigeria’s electoral law.

According to section 92(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, “places designated for religious worship, police stations, and public offices shall not be used for political campaigns, rallies, and processions; or to promote, propagate, or attack political parties, candidates, or their programmes, or ideologies.”

Also, Section 97 of the same law forbids campaigns based on religion or tribe, stating that “any candidate, person or association that engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal, or sectional reason to promote or oppose a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction — (a) to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both; and (b) in the case of a political party, to a maximum fine of N10,000,000.”

Below are a few examples submitted by Premium Times:

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Tinubu shocked Nigerians with his “emilokan” tirade ahead of the presidential primary election of the APC, the former Lagos governor addressed delegates at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He said it was the turn of the Yoruba, hence, his turn to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said: “If not for me that led the war front, Buhari wouldn’t have emerged; he contested first, second and third times and lost.

“He cried on television that he won’t contest again. I went to his home in Katsina, I told him you would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matters of the Yorubas.

“Since he has emerged, I have not been appointed a Minister; I neither get nor request a contract. This time, it’s Yoruba’s turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my turn.”

At the event, Tinubu alluded to a Robert Ogunde’s song, titled ‘Yoruba Ronu, a 1964 musical orchestra charging the people of the southwest not to politically betray one another.

The historical allusion and Tinubu’s outburst appealed to many Yoruba voters who then decided to rally around their tribesman rather than any other politician from another tribe.

Peter Gregory Obi

In April, Peter Obi’s secret telephone conversation with David Oyedebo, a highly influential Nigerian pastor, and founder of the Living Faith Church, was leaked.

In the audio, Peter Obi was heard declaring the 25 February presidential election a religious war and Mr Oyedepo was heard replying “I believe that” repeatedly.

Before that telephone conversation on the eve of the presidential election, Peter Obi had been serially accused of campaigning along religious lines, targeting churches with thousands of followers, an accusation which he serially denied.

In June 2022, for example, Peter Obi asked Nigerians to “take back” their country during a campaign visit to the ‘Men of Valour’ conference, organised by the Revival House of International Church (RHOGIC), Abuja.

At the conference themed ‘Navigating the Corridors of Power, the Church, and the Politics’, Peter Obi described Nigeria’s political space as an “asylum”, urging Nigerians not to allow the status quo to continue.

Atiku Abubakar

Speaking at an interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna, in October 2022, a former vice-president of Nigeria and PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said northerners needed a president like him, who hails from the north.

Mr Abubakar urged northerners to trust him with their votes because he is one of them and therefore the most qualified to be president.

“I have traversed the whole of this country,” he said.

“I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.”

He added that “this is what northerners need. He (northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs.

“I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”

Reading out sections of the Electoral Act, Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner in charge of publicity, said offenders risked imprisonment.

Okoye noted that the Act already has provisions for sanctions for violators, urging parties and candidates to adhere to the law and prioritise it.

It remains to be seen if INEC would be able to muscle the necessary political will to prosecute Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, and Peter Obi for violating the Electoral Act in their campaigns. Read more.

©Copyright 2023 News Band

(If you would like to receive CURRENT NEWS updates from News Band on WhatsApp, or Telegram, or wish send eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to elstimmy@gmail.com and we will respond instantly. Follow us on twitter @News Band; like our Facebook page: News Band.)

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.