Opposition political parties on Friday protested alleged plot to sack the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, at the United States and United Kingdom embassies in Abuja.
The protesters, who were led by representatives of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and Action Alliance (AA), maintained that those who want to unseat Yakubu are hell-bent to achieve their mission.
Speaking to journalists during the protest, Ikenga Ugochinyere, the spokesperson for the Opposition Coalition (CUPP) said only offence Yakubu had committed was his insistence to use Bimodal Voters’ Accreditation System (BVAS) during the 2023 general elections.
Ugochinyere alleged that BVAS is already being tampered with by those politicians that want to remove the INEC chairman, calling on the US, UK and EU to hunt down the conspirators and their families with visa ban, assets freeze and arrest where possible.
“These people perpetrate themselves in office through rigging, deny the people of their democratic choice, loot the common treasury and acquire property across the globe. If these properties are seized, they will learn their lessons,” he said.
The parties further called on all the foreign missions to keep a closer eye on Nigeria’s transition process saying the plot to destabilize INEC can throw Nigeria into crisis.
The opposition leaders also said they had identified a governor from the South East whom they identified as controversial and being the kingpin of the plot to undermine next year’s election.
Other party leaders alongside Ugochinyere included Peter Ameh and Geff Ojinika from Labour Party, Kenneth Udeze of Action Alliance Party and Kabiru Yusuf of Arewa Consultative Group.
They said their move was aimed at engendering peaceful, acceptable, credible, free and fair elections and to promote national security while promoting the principles of participatory democracy and rule of law.
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