Electoral Act Won’t Guarantee Free, Fair Election – APC Chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Mazi Jones Onwusoanya, has said there is no guarantee that the 2023 general elections would be free and fair.

Naija News reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has assured that the forthcoming elections would be credible.

Many Nigerians have also believed the same following the signing of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Onwusoanya, however, has noted that the APC and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would continue to explore new tricks to manipulate poll results in their favour.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the immediate past Publicity Secretary of APC in Imo State stressed that the new Electoral Act is nothing but a bait meant to give Nigerians a false hope that something is going to change with the nation’s electoral process.

Naija News reports that Onwusoanya stated this during an interaction with newsmen on Sunday.

The politician attributed problems with the nation’s electoral system to the desperation of aspirants to bend those laws and impune on the processes, in collusion with civil servants manning INEC.

According to him, “as long as law enforcement and prosecuting agencies remain nonchalant about ensuring that those who run foul of our laws are brought to book and our systems remain vulnerable to hijack by oligarchical cabals, even a law, making the transmission of results spiritual, will not make our election process credible.

“For some of those whose greatest pleasure is in the electronic transmission of results or the so-called BVAS, you can be sure that if any of those stands in the way of our politicians, they will bypass them and have their candidates declared winner, then, you head to court. If you haven’t understood that our courts are cults, then, you might as well be more naive than I thought.”

Onwusoanya maintained that electronic voting is not foolproof, noting that even America and other advanced democracies with all their investments and advancements in technology still have not gotten a perfect electronic voting process.

“Elections over there are still subject to controversies and allegations of manipulation. Most Nigerian politicians will begin to focus their attention on recruiting these hackers to study and find ways of compromising the electronic voting machines and lines of communication,” the APC chieftain said.

Onwusoanya stated further that a few thousand dollars can actually get Nigerian politicians some Chinese or Korean folks who can hack into the system and even run out the country into a big crisis.

According to him, an average Nigerian politician believes that if he can’t win, then, it should be damaged completely. None of those rejoicing over the electronic voting aspect of this electoral Act has bothered to think about a cyber attack.

“Does Nigeria have what it takes to withstand a situation, say, on the eve of our elections or while the voting is going on or collation is ongoing, the entire INEC server is jammed. I will leave you to imagine what will follow such incident?” Onwusoanya asked.

The Ohanaeze chieftain, however, advised Nigerians advice on a free and fair election to have a rethink and be vigilant at their various polling booths during elections.

“I will conclude this unsolicited intervention by further advising my fellow Nigerians; if you are banking on free and fair election merely because a new Electoral Act has been signed, you are wasting your time.

“A new Electoral Act or old Electoral Act, be vigilant at your various polling booths, don’t trust any BVAS or any electronic transmission of results,” he advised.