BENIN CITY- Edo United for Homeland Empowerment, a human rights and civil Liberty Group with Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts has chastised the Nigerian Council of State, for failing in its responsibility to prevent the postponement of February 2015 general elections.
In an electronic mail to our correspondent in Benin City, it noted that the lingering uncertainties in the country, occasioned largely by the Boko Haram insurgency, general lack of security and the dubious activities of the political class are characteristic of a nation sitting on a catastrophic keg of gun powder, ready to explode anytime.
The organization described the postponement of the elections as not only dubious, but a fragrant disregard of the Nigerian constitution and the sovereign rights of the people, adding that it also bears the hallmarks of dictatorship in a democratic system.
Edo United accused the Nigerian Council of State of indirectly enabling the diabolical and pathological dynamics that pressured INEC to give up its constitutional commitment.
This, the group posited, the council did by instructing INEC boss, Attahiru Jega to go and do his civic duty sbut not without consultation with a jittery Nation’s Security Agency that was part of the well-orchestrated ploy to postpone the general elections.
Quoting a statement it issued in Boston, the group also condemned corrupt Nigerian political elements, the nation’s security outfit, including what it termed, their cohorts in the Army and the “Religious Business Empire” for their role in this dirty game.
The statement was signed by its president, Mr. Frank Ekhator (HRA); Director of Publicity, Mr. Emmanuel Okunmwendia; Director of Research, Mr. Aliu Otokiti; Director of Education and Outreach, Dr. Kienuwa Obaseki; Director of Administration, Mrs. Yvonne Omoruyi-Ukhuedoba and Director of The Treasury, Ms. Patience Abbe.
Edo United cited recent grim revelation in Saharareporters’ documentary of how the Nigerian Military allegedly participated in rigging Ekiti State Governorship election in favor of the nation’s ruling People’s DemocraticParty’s candidate, Ayo Fayose as a clear indication of a nation heading towards destruction.
“Considering its current state of affairs, it is not an exaggeration to say that the country is headed towards a precipitous direction with the active and conniving role of the Nation’s big Military wigs (see Saharareporters of February 5, 2015 for Brig.-General Aliyu Momoh and the Ekiti felons),” the organization warned.
The group noted that compelling INEC to succumb to elitist coercion, threats and manipulation, based on proxy preemptive premise, was not only imprudent and illegal, but inconsistent with the principles of democracy and autonomy.