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Civil societies warn against anti-democratic tendencies, interim government

Civil societies warn against anti-democratic tendencies, interim government %Post Title

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations yesterday warned some Nigerians to desist from displaying anti-democratic tendencies.

The group also said any plot by some individual to foist interim government on Nigeria will be resisted.

The caution came barely 24 hours after the President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), raised the alarm over plots by the opposition parties to stall his inauguration in May 29, 2023 and foist interim government on the nation.

But the group that included Campaign for Dignity in Governance, Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate, Center for 21st Century Issues, Movement for Democratic Change and Center for Human and Socio-economic Rights, said such calls were anti-democratic that will not stand in Nigeria.

Speaking from their field experience, the group, adjured the 2023 general elections as the freest, fairest and the most credible in the history of electioneering in the country.

They affirmed that the elections were conducted in substantial compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the outcome reflected the will of the people as expressed at the polls.

Razaq Olokoba, the Convener of the coalition said, it was wrong for some elements in the country to be making inciting, provocative and insensitive statements after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the results.

Olokoba queried: “how can a vice presidential candidate of a political party ask President Muhammadu Buhari-led government not to hand over power to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?”

This statement, according to the group, was treasonable, urging the security agencies to rise up to the occasion by arresting and probing such individuals to know their intentions.

Olokoba said: “We have watched with bated breath and shock, how some characters are plotting to truncate our hard earned democracy at all costs through treasonable and subversive calls for the installation of an interim government.

“We reject in strong terms the attempt to taint the credibility of the 2023 general elections by anti-democratic elements who have taken their campaign of calumny against the successful and credible conduct of the elections to a ridiculous height by describing it as the worst in Nigeria’s history, that it was marred by electoral violence and voters suppression which is at variance with the facts on the ground.

“Any party, candidate or its agents resorting to anti- democratic acts and threats to national security under our laws, is liable for treason and we urge the government to activate all its law enforcement agencies to act swiftly to prevent this ticking bomb that threatens our collective peaceful co-existence.

“We however want to use this opportunity to admonish these agents of destabilization, that as Nigerians who went to the polls peacefully and orderly to exercise our franchise on Election Day and even observe the elections, we will no longer fold our arms and watch them discredit and undermine our democracy and national security for their selfish end.”

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