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The Action Congress (AC) has called for the cancellation of all local government elections so far held across the country, while also demanding that all council elections yet to be held should be put on hold until a more auspicious time.
The Action Congress (AC) has called for the cancellation of all local government elections so far held across the country, while also demanding that all council elections yet to be held should be put on hold until a more auspicious time.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the violence and manipulations that greeted the local government elections held so far have only confirmed that it will be bloody, holding council elections now until government has done the right thing.
It said the violence at the council election in Kano, where over 100 people were killed; the attack on the convoy of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State over the state's council polls and the razing of the offices of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) in several states were indications that Nigeria has yet to put in place the modalities for organizing a free, fair and violence-free polls.
AC said before any other elections could be held, the government should first institute a public inquiry into the last general elections, now adjudged to be the worst in the history of the country and impose appropriate sanctions on those found to have compromised the integrity of the general elections.
‘There will be no deterrence against electoral fraud and violence for as long as anyone knows he or she can get away with these despicable actions. 'We are therefore compelled to re-state our earlier stand, that President Umaru Yar'Adua is putting the cart before the horse by setting up an electoral review panel before probing the last elections. The work of the electoral review panel can only be meaningful if this first step of instituting a public enquiry is carried out.
'It is not about witch-hunting anyone, but a means of knowing where we went wrong. It is akin to the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa.
'According to Othman Dan Fodio, conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal it. INEC, through the April elections, has inflicted deep wounds on the psyche of Nigerians. The wounds have been festering, and until and unless they are healed, nothing can happen," the party said.
It said though the truth about the charade called the general elections in April has started coming out, thanks to the country's upright and fearless judiciary, a public inquiry will help quicken the pace and bring to the fore the lessons learnt from the polls.
'Through this long overdue public enquiry, we will know those who did it right, those who did it wrong and those who should never be allowed to conduct elections," it said.
'This is no time for unbridled partisanship, because the issues involved touch on the very soul of the nation's democracy. If we cannot hold free, fair and peaceful polls, we cannot, in all honesty, sustain this democracy," AC warned.