Buhari's directive on ballot snatching unpresidential - Ozekhome
- Mike Ozekhome has alleged that President Buhari's comment on ballot box snatching is unpresidential
- The senior lawyer also that the president is usurping the powers of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police
- Ozekhome further warned that presidents do not preach violence, nor engage in scare mongering,as President Buhari has allegedly done
A senior advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, on Monday, February 18, reacted to a controversial directive given to security agencies on ballot box snatching by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ozekhome in a statement said the directive by the president that anyone who snatches ballot box at the polls does so at the expense of his life is unpresidential and unconstitutional.
According to the he senior lawyer, President Buhari through his statement was usurping the powers of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police.
He said the directive shows the president's extreme desperation and panicky mindset.
Ozekhome said: "For the records, it is the president's own APC party that has so far been involved,to the knowledge of the whole world,in bizarre acts of electoral malpractices during their primaries, leading to an implosively divided party of disparate and inchoate tendencies."
READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda
APC's leading lights have so far preached terror, "body bags",mayhem,strife,stoned their president and leaders,booed others,killed some in cold bloodshed,denied themselves tickets,and generally engaged in acts of gansterism,hooliganism and shameless "agberoism",quite unbecoming of a ruling party," Ozekhome said.
He added that constitutionally, presidents do not preach violence, nor engage in scare mongering, as President Buhari has allegedly done.
Ozekhome said presidents are known to be extremely cautious and restrained,even when others do not because a president is supposed to approximate the highest ideals, morals and nobility of the national psyche,ethos and consciousness.
"The law is quite clear.It never prescribes the death penalty as Buhari wants to force in.Recall how he had retroactively got executed, Ojuolape, Ogedengbe and Owoh, for drug peddling in his first military junta," the senior lawyer noted.
He said: "He made them pay the supreme price inspite of national and international uproar and condemnation for an offence that did not carry the death penalty when it was commited. For God's sake,President Buhari is forcing us back to Egypt which we had happily left 35 years ago."
"The palpable frustration now being publicly displayed in a most undisguised and unveneered manner supports my hypothesis in an earlier write-up that the undue pressure mounted on INEC chairman to go ahead and hold staggered elections appeared to have backfired.
Professor Mahmood is said to have bluntly refused. The presidency was said to have hoped to watch Atiku Abubakar's votes and cancel the humongous difference by deploying full scorching military might to the few states where elections would have been rescheduled,to literally steal the difference as they did in Osun state.
This Osun formula was busted by INEC, hence the wailing and unrestrained lachrymal effusion we are now seeing.Mr President sir,here is the bad news for you. Nigerians are tired and anxiously waiting to demystify you and send you on forced return to Daura on the 23rd of February. Your fixation of "I can't be beaten",and your obsequious bootlicking chear choristers' puerile insistence that "no one can defeat Buhari" would be blown into smithereens.
If you had performed creditably well as your hypocritical propagandists would have you believe, you would not have been running helter-skelter, from pillar to post today,begging Nigerians for votes,amidst too many gaffes and false steps.
Nigeria is too big for one individual,aided by only 2-3 powerful members of cabal (thank you, Aisha Buhari),to hold down by the jugular in an asphyxiating beer-hug.
How many prison yards can you build to quarantine off all Nigerians?" the lawyer queried.
PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news updates
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the APC of planning to use the military to intimidate voters in order to pave the way for rigging during the general elections.
Atiku made the allegation when he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of showing complete disregard to the laws of this country following the president’s statement that ballot box snatchers would be doing so at their own risk.
He described Buhari’s statement as inciting violence ahead of the general elections.
NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better.
2019 election: Who will win? Anambra residents speak | Legit TV
Source: Legit.ng
