The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, MMWG, has called on the police authorities to ensure that those arrested for electoral crimes during Saturday’s governorship and state House of Assembly elections throughout the country face the full wrath of the law.
This was even as the group called on the 9th National Assembly to pass the Executive Bill forwarded to it for the establishment of National Electoral Offences’ Commission, NEOC before the end of its tenure.
MMWG, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi and issued on Sunday, particularly warned that the offenders “must not be freed but tried appropriately in the court of law.”
“In all elections held in the country so far, prosecution and punishment for election offences have been non-existent; this year’s election must not go the same way as we now have revised an electoral law that punishes electoral offenders,” it stated.
The group commended the electorate for turning out to vote in the two elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, across the country.
It also hailed INEC and security agencies on the success of the elections, pointing out that their officials performed creditably.
MMWG, therefore, appealed to all to accept the results of the elections as might be released by the INEC in line with the peace accord signed before the exercise.
Similarly, it commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his fight against corruption including vote-buying, but urged him to give a presidential order immediately to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to end the artificial scarcity of new and old naira created by the apex bank.
The group further stated that “with the election over, locking out of customers from the gates of commercial banks must come to an end from tomorrow (20th March, 2023) as Nigerians of all categories have been highly tormented and humiliated with difficulties they had in accessing their funds in various banks for the past six weeks.
“Only God can save most Nigerians from dangers arising from the hardship imposed on them by the CBN for its decision not to fund commercial banks sufficiently even after the Supreme Court’s judgment since 3rd March this year.
“With the elections being over, the fear of state governments and parties’ top functionaries using money to buy votes is over; therefore, there is no excuse for CBN to ‘punish’ innocent Nigerians by not releasing sufficient cash to commercial banks whether old or new notes,” it stressed.
