Electoral Act: Amaechi, Sowore join OccupyNASS protest

…ask opposition parties to mobilise Nigerians against bad governance

…say Tinubu, APC are afraid of losing power

Former Presidential aspirant in the 2023 election under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, joined the Occupy National Assembly (OccupyNASS ) protest with a clarion call on all the opposition parties to join the ongoing demand for good governance and attempt to truncate free, fair and credible elections in 2027.

In his remarks during the OccupyNASS protest, Amaechi, who was accompanied by his first son, who is a medical doctor, accused President Bola Tinubu and the ruling party of hijacking the electoral process through fraudulent electoral legislation.

While urging the stakeholders who participated in the OccupyNASS protest to be wary of the police threat, he said, “We need to mobilise much more than this. If we mobilise over 100,000 Nigerians, these policemen are not up to 100,000. Whether we like it or not, these men will not give up; they will bring policemen here, so don’t ask why the police are here.

“We must mobilise in such a way that we will match the police for police. We must let them know that if they are 370, they should also join our people who have come out; they would join.”

While expressing confidence in the outcome of the OccupyNASS protest, the former Rivers State governor expressed optimism that the adoption of real-time transmission of election results will reduce the level of death during the election period.

ALSO READ: #OccupyNASS: Why I brought my first son to protest ground — Amaechi

“Now, what is the advantage of the transmission of election results? The advantage is that very few will die on election day, very few Nigerians, even in the current situation, we have people dying in their troops, in large number and because people are dying, they don’t care.

“That’s why Akpabio will build his mansion with police and Army protecting him, while people are forced to be on the field and they are rigging the election, but…to stop them from rigging, we must come out in large numbers…”

While accusing President Bola Tinubu of exhibiting a lackadaisical attitude to the issue of insecurity, Hon. Amaechi alleged that: “the only time the President began to react to insecurity was the day the Americans said oh they are killing Christians that’s when the President feels his office is related. He doesn’t care about Nigerians. We must go back home now before the election and mobilise ourselves in large numbers. If there are 300,000 policemen, bring out 600,000 Nigerians.

“How many people will they kill? There are a number of people they can kill, and we start talking about genocide. There’s a number you are allowed to kill. I read international law, in international law, you kill, for instance, as in Ikwere, and they have committed genocide in Ikwere, and the hoever gave that instruction must account for it. Tinubu won’t travel out of this country after his presidency. If these people were killed. Take the President of the Philippines, where is he now? He’s in jail for 5,000 people. But Nigerians are afraid, that’s why in my car I always play Fela because they put that fear in you, so bloody what! They want to arrest me, okay.”

Ameachi who urged all well-meaning Nigerians to join the movement for a credible electoral process, maintained that the only way that the current administration will not waste the Citizens’ time, “is to get everybody, both farmers and villagers, we must get everybody to hear that the only way to save Nigeria from election violence is to allow real time transmission of election results. What’s wrong with that?

“They are afraid to lose power; the stealing is too much. They’re afraid to lose power,” he stressed.

While responding to INEC’s position on the inability to transmit election results, Amaechi said, “It is in their interest not to transmit real-time. I think I’m here to support, I came with my Son who is a medical doctor… You will see me in front with my children; I won’t be behind, but the problem is that Nigerians must make up. We won’t wake up.”

Responding to the allegation that the protest has been hijacked by the opposition parties, Amaechi said: I believe that the opposition parties should come out. PDP, AA, ADC, everybody should bring everybody out to protest against the attempt by one party,” just as he beckoned on Governor Seyi Makinde’s led PDP to join force ADC.

“What is APC doing? What are they afraid of? Though they said they have 31 governors. Tinubu is not Jonathan. If he is an expert, the only way a good politician can know whether he has done well or not is by the people,” Ameachi stressed.

On his part, Sowore, who urged Nigerians to defend their vote beyond the ongoing protest, said: “I’m here because Nigerians are tired of this National Assembly. Nigerians are tired of the government in power led by Tinubu, and to be honest with you, this demand for electoral reform is small compared to what Nigerians are asking for. The Nigerian people are even tired of the elections. The Nigerian people are asking for a revolution, and as I’ve always said, Tinubu, Akpabio, and the rest of them will help us bring about the revolution in this country. That’s why I’m happy about it, because they cannot escape it.

“You can imagine just a simple request to transmit election results as it’s happening, you know I’m even not personally interested in transmission of election results, I’m interested in electronic voting where people can vote from their houses And the result will be reflected as you are voting because if you can send millions of naira from your phone, you should be able to vote on your phone.

“I was with the other chairmen of the other political parties with the INEC Chairman, and he told us that India had been doing electronic voting for years now, there are 900 million registered voters, their elections are conducted, and nobody goes to court. The same thing is happening in Brazil.

“What you are required to do after you vote is to keep the receipt of who voted for, so if there’s a dispute, you just tender the same way you sent the receipt. It’s a transaction here, and they’ll tell you that there is no internet in 9 states. They have been giving these excuses so that Nigeria will not progress in their own time, but we have decided that Nigeria must progress in our time.

“And that’s why I was warning the police officer who was threatening to shoot the teargas canister that if you shoot the teargas here, you have started the war because we are not your enemies, but if you want to turn yourself into our enemies, you know what ENDSARS is all about?

“And if this country is good, it’ll be good for you too. I once came to this National Assembly to fight for policemen, 74,000 of them were promoted because of that since 2025, and now. So don’t appeal to them anymore, we have passed that stage.”

While responding to the emergency plenary being held by the Senate, Sowore maintained that if the emergency plenary did not resolve the emergency situation at hand, “there’ll be a state of emergency in this country, it’s as simple as that.”

However, he urged that beyond the voting, Nigerians “must defend our votes because we must stop voting for our enemies in this country. And anybody should be saying that we are only good for protest, that we are not good to be leaders. That’s the reason I did not want to come yesterday (Monday), I want the politicians who benefit from our activities to also participate and to also become Activists themselves, not that when we are done fighting, they’ll now tell us to go and sit down, you are an activist.

“Let everybody come outside and fight. Nobody is too old to fight, because they are never too young to fight. They are also never too old to share the national cake, so they should not be too old to match in support of progress.”