The National Democratic Alliance (NADECO) has called on US President Joe Biden not to recognize the government of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria until the end of an ongoing case disputing his victory.
NADECO also accused the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) of flagrantly violating the 2022 Election Law by not transmitting election results from polling stations to servers in real time as promised.
This was made in a statement issued by NADECO yesterday during the extraordinary summit held in Washington, DC, USA.
The statement signed by Lloyd Ukwu, executive director of NADECO, calls on the US to suspend any recognition of the new Nigerian government until the Supreme Court fully reviews and transparently considers the process. the 2023 election, as the United States did with the 2022 election in Kenya.
The group also advises the US government to immediately impose Magnitsky Act sanctions on anyone found to obstruct or disrupt the 2023 election process by implementing all sanctions. existing penalties for such individuals. He continued to direct the United States to use the spoils of the late General Sani Abacha currently in forfeiture proceedings in the US District Court to compensate the victims of election violence in Nigeria.
He added: “Disclosure and disclosure of all existing documents relating to the Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, who is currently at issue in campaign petitions, for the courts to rule”.
Furthermore, NADECO alleges that INEC violated the Elections Act 2022, its own guidance, and lied to Nigerians by promising to transmit election results from polling stations to servers in real-time, at the same time lamenting that she did not do so.
The group continues to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently dismiss the professor. Mahmood Yakubu, President of INEC and continued to call for his arrest and prosecution.
He also added that all other INEC officials found guilty of election fraud will be prosecuted by the competent court.
The statement also lamented that many Nigerians had lost hope in the justice system due to some of the controversial sentences it delivered recently, but said the fates of millions of Nigerians depended on it.
He also suggested that the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Electoral Courts should promptly and transparently review electoral challenges and, in the case of the President, if no final decision is made on The results of the February 2023 elections by May 29 expected. Inaugurated in 2023, the constitution must be respected.
He argued that the constitution stipulates that the President of the Senate be appointed Acting President for three months to map out the legal transition of power in Nigeria.
The communique read:
“To achieve these objectives our legal panel recommended further that: Parties in the petition request and the court grant a writ of mandamus order requiring INEC to review all parties’ objections and reevaluate the election results within seven days as authorized by law which INEC failed to do.
“That the tribunal’s proceedings be broadcast live given the global interest, import, and importance of the elections. In that light, we commend the commencement of tribunal hearings where all parties have pledged to expedite the process. That the Nigerian Supreme Court, the Nigerian Government, and all of its security agencies including the Department of State Service (DSS), refrain from hastily swearing-in or facilitating the swearing-in of any of the 2023 Presidential Candidates until their exhaustion of all available remedies.
“Alternatively, given the widespread discontent and rejection of electoral process by Nigerians at home and abroad, the Nigeria Supreme Court is urged to rely on the ‘political question doctrine’ to restrain itself from the polarising nature of its decision regarding the 2023 presidential elections, and order INEC to conduct a fresh election, which complies with the requirement of the Nigerian Constitution, the 2022 Electoral Act as amended, and INEC’s own guidelines.”
The body also called for the unbundling of the Nigerian Police and decentralization in order to effectively maintain law and order across the entire country.
It argued that a single police system has become archaic and inadequate to effectively and adequately police a country as populous as Nigeria and with an expansive land mass.
It also challenged the Nigerian Government to always obey the rule of law irrespective of its outcome, stressing that the government had been selective in obeying the law.
