Ballot box snatching: ‘Buhari’s shoot-on-sight order, military hangover’

SOUTHERN and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) on Monday frown on the order issued by President Muhammadu Buhari to the security agencies to shoot on sight any ballot snatcher in the elections holding from Saturday across the country, describing the order as a military hangover.

The group, while agreeing that ballot snatching remained a criminal offence, however, maintained that democracy does not permit summary execution of suspects or any form of extrajudicial killing.

Mr Yinka Odumakin, gave the group’s reaction in a telephone conversation with Tribune Online, saying the order by Buhari was clearly another sign of anti-democratic attitude on the part of the government he leads, even as he maintained that the law of the land only allowed that suspects should be arrested and prosecuted as against extrajudicial killing.

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“That’s a military hangover, democracy does not permit summary execution of suspects. You can arrest them and prosecute them. To order the extrajudicial killing of citizens, that’s clearly another sign of anti-democratic attitude on the part of the present government. It does not have a democratic mood.

“Yes, snatching of ballot box is a criminal offence, but those who engage in it should be arrested and prosecuted according to law, not by ordering extra- judicial execution of citizens. That clearly is not a statement that is expected from a democratic president,” he said.

Speaking further, Odumakin said SMBLF would not sit by and allow such extra-judicial killing to happen, promising to work with both locally and intentionally-based bodies to ensure that appropriate actions were meted, adding: “There are local and international sanctions for that, Afenifere would push for such bodies to take action.”