The Coalition of Northern Groups has said former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is not qualified to condemn irregular electoral practices.
This was said by the spokesperson for the CNG, Mr Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement issued on Monday evening.
The coalition statement came some hours after Obasanjo sent a letter to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
In the letter, Obasanjo called on Buhari to order the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to stop collating election results and clear the allegations against the Independent Electoral Commission from different sectors.
Punchmetro had on Monday reported that the results of the general election that was held on February 25 were being collation by INEC.
The announcement so far has spurred many negative reactions especially those
challenging the credibility of the votes that are being collation.
For instance, the agent of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dino Melaye, and some others walked out of the collation room claiming that the All Progressive Congress had connived with INEC to manipulate results.
Also, the Labour Party had also rejected the results being presented by the electoral body.
Meanwhile, the European Union international bodies and other civil society groups have also noted the lack of transparency of Nigeria’s general election.
Adding his voice to other parties, the former president of Nigeria, had in a letter signed by him and released on Monday stated that ‘danger was looming’ in the country because of INEC’s announcements.
Reacting to the letter shared by Obasanjo, Mr Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, said that the former president’s statement was “wrapped in a crude cover of crass political opportunism and breathtaking ineptitude.”
According to him, Obasanjo is not in the right position to speak about electoral malpractice because he was once a party to it.
Suleiman said, “For whatever reason, Obasanjo should not be the person to speak of irregular electoral practices going by his record of inconsistencies with elections while in office.
He also stated that Obasanjo lacked the required competence to speak about the credibility of elections.
In his words, “Obasanjo lacks the credibility or competence to speak on the credibility of elections unless he is working to bring about conflict for the Service of his usual, dubious, personal political agenda.”
“Obasanjo should note that he does not own Nigeria and that his selfish, hateful disposition has for long stripped him of claim to integrity or statesmanship.
“Nigerians cannot quickly forget the transitional elections held under Obasanjo which were clearly contrived on the back of the most gratuitous insults to justice and fairness wrapped in the crude cover of crass political opportunism and breathtaking ineptitude,” Sulaiman stressed.
According to the report, Suleiman added that Obasanjo should be questioned about his “deliberately inciting statements.” He should also be warned, and held accountable for any law or order violation that would cause a systemic breakdown.
He further stated, “We finally alert the nation and the world to where the blame should ultimately lay if Obasanjo’s threats to national integration ever came to pass.”
