A popular musician-turned-human rights activist, Mr. Charles Oputa, popularly called Charly Boy, on Monday said the September 22 and 27 gubernatorial election in Osun State must be further probed to ascertain alleged connivance between Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
He said it was incumbent on every Nigerian to ensure that elections reflect the true wishes of the people, adding that the coming generations would ask questions on the role played by individuals in this generation to make sure elections are free and fair.
Oputa made the charge while speaking at a Colloquium organised by the Oodua Youth Development Initiative, in collaboration with Virtues Unlimited Restorative Justice Initiative in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
The convener of “Our Mumu Don Do” further alleged that some INEC officials connived with the ruling APC to work against the interest of the people in the state.
He identified lack of transparency, harassment of observers and press men, coupled with incidence of failure card readers failure as some of the issues that marred the exercise declared to have been won by APC.
He charged Nigerian youths to rise up in defence of true democracy, and support selfless leadership predicated on rule of law and natural justice.
Representative of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Lere Oyewunmi accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of tampering with card readers in favour of the ruling APC during the poll.
He said the card readers were preloaded with accreditation while features that identify the genuineness of voters’ cards were disabled ahead of the election.
Oyewumi called for public vigilance ahead of the 2019 general elections, while also advising political parties to engage well educated and politically motivated persons as party agents.
Other speakers at the event included representatives of the Coalition in Defence of Nigeria’s democracy and constitution, Dare Ariyo; Democracy and Good governance Department of the Justice and Peace Makers Centre, Festus Ojewunmi and Wole Oladapo of the Virtues Restorative Justice Initiative.
