Posted by From MODESTUS CHUKWUALAKA, Abuja on
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has risen in condemnation of last Saturday's gubernatorial and state legislative elections and called on Nigerians to rise up and reject the outcome of the polls and defend the future of the country.
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has risen in condemnation of last Saturday's gubernatorial and state legislative elections and called on Nigerians to rise up and reject the outcome of the polls and defend the future of the country.
ASUU said what took place last weekend was not a free and fair election by any acceptable civilized standard, saying Nigerians owe a duty to their country to defend the constitution by rejecting the character and outcome of the "so-called" April 14, 2007 "election."
"We call upon all Nigerians to stand up and reject in its entirety the fraud committed on April 14, 2007 by INEC in the name of gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections," the union said in a statement signed by its president, Dr Abdullahi Sule Kano, in Abuja on Wednesday.
It noted that all Nigerians should join forces across the length and breadth of the country, struggle against fraud and dictatorship, misrule, injustice and oppression as epitomised by the elections.
"We call on Nigerians to defend their votes, defend their rights to choose their sovereignty by acting now to end the electoral fraud and rekindle the hopes for a free future. We call on Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress , the Nigerian Bar Association, all professional organisations and all civil society organisations to come together and organise to defend the future of Nigeria," ASUU said.
According to ASUU, the election did not in any measure represent the wish of Nigerians, "and was in fact, another exercise that subverted the people's right to choose their leaders."
Noting that the constitution does not give the Armed Forces the role of rigging elections or aiding the rigging of elections, ASUU said the April 14 election witnessed a rape of provisions of Sections 14.2, 51.5, 34.1(a) and 217 of the constitution.
The union listed a litany of malpractices that made nonsense of the election as observed by its monitors and said there was widespread and deliberate manipulation of the voters' registers' list, illegal disqualification of candidates by INEC which also flouted court orders.