A pan-South-West socio-political organization under the aegis of Yoruba Council Worldwide has called on the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo to guard his utterances and avoid setting the country on fire.
The organization described the alarm raised by Obasanjo against officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as “unfounded and false”.
The YCW alleged that Obasanjo aimed to “cause ethnic conflict that will inevitably nosedive into civil unrest as earlier postulated” by him in his letter dated February 27, 2023.
The socio-cultural organization warned that “any attempt to allow any unilateral cancellation by the chairman of INEC as proposed by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and co-accomplices is a recipe for anarchy and full implosion that will take many years to repair.”
The President of the YCW, Oladotun Hassan, described Obasanjo’s outburst as a “selfish, egocentric and deliberate attempt to viciously scuttle the ongoing smooth electoral process through his tainted partisan efforts to create a false impression against the use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System.”
His reaction sent to The PUNCH was titled, ‘Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s false alarm over BVAS and cancellation of 2023 presidential election: A steer to implode anarchy in Nigeria’.
Hassan said, “His undemocratic stance on many fronts has further reduced his level of opinion to a mere beer parlor argument without no substance to hold and bind the nation together as a true democrat and respected elder statesman.
“Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is under intense frustration and desperation to foist his endorsed political son, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, on all Nigerians without due respect for our franchise will, having sacrificed our efforts to vote for our choices on February 25, 2023.
“We respect everyone’s choices without any iota of intimidation and violence, in as much as we respect the Ibos and other ethnic regions, hence we expect equal reciprocity, consequently we wouldn’t want Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to drive his personal vendetta agenda under ethnic wedged venom of hatred and divide and rule syndrome to
“We are peaceful people in Yoruba land and most accommodating race, hence we implore President Muhammadu Buhari alongside all Nigerians to ignore Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s ill-motivated predictions, while standing with INEC to salvage and safeguard the ongoing process to conclusion and fruition predicated on free, fair and credible elections.
“It is only the Election Tribunal that can address many of the issues raised on the uploading of the results from the polling units to the INEC portals if truly those allegations raised are true.
“But for necessity and exigency of the preceding circumstances INEC needed to apply all lawful means to keep the process unimpeded despite the huge negativity caused by disgruntled politicians and desperate citizens whose intentions are laced with ethnic bigotry rather than building one and a new Nigeria.
“All presidential candidates are hereby mandated to continuously maintain their peace accord demands in line with the National Peace Committee’s noble vision, objectives, and mandates, for no one’s blood, is worth the election. “We call on all law enforcement agencies to be on red alert to immediately arrest anyone instigating nor inciting violence either by utterance or deeds.
“We hereby reiterate our confidence in INEC to continue the result computation process in line with the dictates of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and whoever wins must be declared immediately and given a certificate of return.”
