Demonstrations and protests against the declaration incumbent Governor Abdulahi Sule as winner of the March 18 governorship election in Nasarawa state, despite an order by the State Police Command, banning all political protests
It would be recalled that the Police in Nasarawa state , in a statement on Tuesday, banned all forms of protest, following the day five of the series of protest that rocked the state capital, Lafia and other cities, in rejection of the outcome of the election
The protesters, under the aegis of Coalition of Aggrieved Support Groups for Ombugadu, who staged another protest in the state on Thursday, just like the previous ones continued to rain curses at the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC), chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Uthman Ajidagba following their alleged roles in the election
It would be recalled INEC had announced the incumbent governor, Abdulahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state
The protester warned that should the process that led to the announcement of governor-elect, Abdullahi Sule, is not reviewed, all those involved “may incur the wrath of God.”
Thet displayed placards with inscriptions of: “INEC has compromised the electoral process; Restore our democracy”, “Save our democracy in Nasarawa state”, among others.
Addressing journalists during the protest, the Chairman, CASGM, Ofem Akpan Ibiang, slammed the election umpire over the outcome of the guber election, and urged INEC to hearken to the cries of women and youths in the state.
He said: “We have started this protest for the past seven days. Today we are ending it. We sought approval from the Commissioner of Police and the Director of DSS from Lafia and all the security agencies in Karu Local government were notified about our protests.
“That is why you will see that protests were stopped in places like Lafia, the one we are doing here has not been stopped. The initial prayer we have prayed before yesterday was that the INEC chairman should recall the results from Lafia and Awe local government and look at it critically with a view to correcting the mistakes and anomalies that have been done by the returning officers and it was surprising to us yesterday that even though the lawyers that represent our principal has gone to INEC with a petition buttressing this fact, they still went ahead to give the party APC candidate the certificate of return.
“That is why we are cursing everybody that is involved in this; God in his infinite mercy is going to judge them. This place constitutes people from different tribes and different religions. So, we are saying that there are people who have done this thing, God is going to judge them.”
“INEC has failed us by giving a certificate of return to the wrong person. They promised us that on the ground of egalitarianism, on the ground of justice there will be proper scrutiny and verification before delivery on certificates but to our greatest surprise INEC gave certificate without proper verification, INEC gave mandate that was not meant to be given to a wrong person, depriving the entire citizenry and the indigenes their privileges and the only true candidate in person of Ombugadu. We are disappointed.
“Today, we stand as a collective mind: youths, mothers and fathers are fighting for a common goal and that goal is a goal of justice, a goal of truth, a goal of true vote counts but INEC has deprived us of our fundamental rights.”
