Rivers council polls: Labour Party demands electoral, judicial reforms

By John Alechenu, Abuja
The Senator Nenadi Usman-led Labour Party (LP) has demanded electoral and judicial reforms to protect the integrity of Nigeria’s democracy.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Toni Akeni, said this in a chat with Vanguard in Abuja on Monday.

He said the just-concluded Local Government Area Council elections held in Rivers State over the weekend were proof that absurdity has been elevated to the position of statecraft by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the government it leads.

According to him, there was no better time to reform the judiciary and the electoral system than now because the Rivers council polls were not only a reflection of the “grab, snatch and run with power” political philosophy of President Bola Tinubu but also a dress rehearsal for how the APC plans to rig elections in 2027.

Akeni said, “The only solution for Nigerians to emancipate themselves is to rise in unison today, not wait till 2027, to demand drastic visceral amendments to the Nigerian constitution.

“The first, foremost and non-negotiable amendment should be to remove from the Nigerian constitution the powers of the President and state governors to appoint INEC officials and judicial officers at their respective federal and state tiers of government.

“The Rivers election was not an election but a gang-rape of Rivers state electorates and people.

“It was simply one man called Bola Ahmed Tinubu asking another man called Nyesom Wike to shepherd INEC, Nigeria’s security agencies and their extension of ballot rigging political thugs to tell Rivers people that they, along with 200million Nigerians everywhere else in our country, are back in the dark days and horrors of Africa’s colonial conquest, captivity and slavery.

“The Rivers state council elections, just like the recent August 16 by-elections, were used by President Tinubu and Wike to tell Nigerians two things.

“The first is that both elections, which are naked, broad-day criminal robbery and rape of the people’s franchise, are an exact mirror of what APC plans to enact in the faces of Nigerians in 2027.

“The second thing the Rivers election reiterates to Nigerians is that their constitutional franchise, which was first unofficially snatched, grabbed and run away with in 2023, has now been officially abrogated.

“Indeed, abolished and expunged henceforward, and that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.

“This is because the APC-annexed Nigerian judiciary will also be used to cement the fact if and when objecting opposition candidates go to court.”

The party spokesman noted that Nigerians must wake up and take their constitutional responsibilities seriously to save generations yet unborn from perdition.

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