NEWS FLASH: FG lied on credible 2023 polls, treason allegation —Afenifere

THE Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, lambasted the Federal Government for tainting facts about the credibility of the 2023 Presidential election and treason allegation.

Afenifere, in a statement by its Secretary General, Sola Ebiseni, in Akure, Ondo State, tackled the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for choosing a foreign land for “their macabre dance.”

Ebiseni said: “Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information, falls in this unenviable class, with his current visits and interviews in the United States of America, to taint sacred facts about the 2023 Presidential election.

“Whereas the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the glare of the whole world, had admitted the failures of the statutorily prescribed components of the electoral process.”

The statement reads: “It is certainly not true as Lai Mohammed claimed that under our laws today, management of election results is manual”, the ruling of the court “that INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission” only compels the Commission to act in tandem with its electoral guidelines to that effect.

“The essence of amending our electoral laws resulting in the Electoral Act 2022 is the surgical removal of the mischief of managing our electoral process by the pernicious manual procedures.

“In a clear case of abuse of office, Lai Mohammed, trying desperately to dance himself back to the mind of his party candidate having taken a different course during the primaries, has mindlessly descended to the abyss of falsehood reminiscent of his modus operandi as party spokesperson with which he has odiously smeared the office of the nation’s Minister of Information.

“The Minister lied when he claimed that “the President ensured that nobody used the security agencies to rig the election in his favour but created a level-playing ground for the election.

“The truth is that the security agencies in many states not only worked for the ruling party, government and its security arms watched in acquiescence as leaders of armed thugs boastfully threatened citizens with mayhem which they freely carried out as if we are in a state of nature.

“Rather than tout the loss of the home states of some of his party’s leaders to the opposition as proof of fair election, Lai Mohammed should have been courageous enough to ascribe the feat to the vigilance of the people and why they incurred the wrath of organised and armed hired thugs in the elections.

“One wonders what is left for the courts to decide after the crude analysis by Lai Mohammed of the performance of the candidates, the figures of which he effortlessly and shamelessly bacterized.

“He ruled that Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared president.

“He crudely handed down judgment on the status of the FCT and lied against the constitution when he said “not only must a candidate have the plurality of votes, he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.”

Alleged treason

On the treasonable comments, the Afenifere scribe said: “Lai Mohammed may need to rewind his past statements, particularly the interview he granted Sani Tukur of an online newspaper on April 27, 2013, wherein he said “Democracy will fail in Nigeria unless APC wins in 2015. His principals did not fare better.

“Unfortunately, Lai Mohammed, in America, has chosen the wrong congregation for its antidemocratic sermons.”