Atiku & Buhari. |
Contrary to their claims, President Muhammadu Buhari and
the All Progressives Congress are flagrantly violating the Constitution and the
Electoral Act 2010 as amended by their unbridled deployment of state resources
and apparatuses for the 2019 presidential campaign.
Recall that the National Chairman
of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had in December of last year warned incumbent
office holders against using state resources or apparatuses for their
campaigns, or deploying same against their opponents.
Prof Yakubu, who issued the warning
at a lecture titled “Political corruption and other emerging issues for the
2019 elections” in Abuja, noted that the commission has the power to monitor
campaign financing and sources of funds according to the Constitution and the
Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
However, in negation of the
Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the Buhari administration
and the APC has taken to the illegal deployment of state resources to its
advantage for the election.
We wish to remind President Buhari
and the APC that the use of state videos released by the Federal Ministry of
Information and Culture is illegal under the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
The media is awash with
advertisements with the hashtag #PMBDIDIT and signed by the Federal Ministry of
Information and Culture and referencing so-called achievements of the APC
administration in the states of Abia, Kwara, Lagos, Ebonyi, Delta and Kano,
among others. These are without doubt 2019 presidential campaign materials
produced by the Ministry of Information and Culture using state resources and
apparatuses to benefit President Buhari. (See attached videos).
This appalling conduct, which is
clearly in violation of Section 100 of the Electoral Act, is even more shocking
when it is recalled that the state resources being used to the illegal
advantage of President Buhari are being drawn from agencies which for over three
years prior to this election failed to perform their duties to the benefit of
Nigerian citizens. The Ministry of Information and Culture must stop this
illegality immediately.
We demand that INEC issues an
immediate cease and desist order to both the Ministry of Information and
Culture and to the broadcast channels running it.
We also insist that INEC register
the media spend behind it as part of the APC’s total N1 billion campaign spend
limit.
Fortunately, INEC is alert to this
danger and itself warned the ruling party to refrain from such conduct. Now
that the party has clearly flouted the law in negation of the electoral
umpire’s warning, we urge that INEC sanctions them accordingly.
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