The Governors Forum, in a communique made available to newsmen in Abuja yesterday and signed by its Chairman, Chief Ayodele Fayose, who is also the Ekiti State Governor, lashed out the APC led government over “ the surreptitious, selective and suspicious payment of N16 billion purportedly from the Paris Club Refund”,
It declared that the money was “to fund corrupt inducement of voters in the forthcoming Governorship election in Osun State on September 22”.
The Forum also resolved to have an all-inclusive meeting with all the Presidential aspirants, with the national chairman, two national officers of the party, and the leaders of the party in both chambers of the National Assembly in attendance ahead of its primaries.
While condemning “the politicisation of security agencies in the country by the Federal Government,” observed that “Security agencies have become organs and tools of the APC-led Federal Government to harass and intimidate the opposition and dissenting voices.”
The Forum decried the use of security agencies to perpetrate electoral fraud “as it happened in Ekiti, Osun and Rivers State and urged them to be non-partisan in the performance of their duties in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.”
It condemned what it described as the flagrant violation of democratic ethos by operatives of this government as shown recently in the infamous act by the Police at the residence of Elder Statesman, Pa Edwin Clark, and the harassment on innocent Nigerians across the country on frivolous claims.
“The Forum noted the INEC needs to reinvent itself as a truly indepedent umpire of the electoral process in the country. For now, we have no confidence in INEC. The commission has conducted itself as a tool of the APC-led Federal Government, especially with the roles of the Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, and a National Commissioner, Mrs. Amina Zakari.”
The Forum further condemned the “surreptitious, selective and suspicious payment of N16 billion purportedly from the Paris Club Refund. We are of the view that the money is to fund corrupt inducement of voters in the forthcoming Governorship election in Osun State on September 22, 2018.”
“The meeting condemned unequivocally, the refusal or failure of the President to sign into law the amended electoral act thereby indicating that the President and his party are afraid of electronic voting or the introduction of technology into the electoral system,” the communique added.