Tina Amanda
More reactions have trailed the outcome of the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections as Niger Delta activist, Ankio Briggs, says the February 23rd polls were not free and fair as many were disenfranchised from participating in their civil rights in the region.
Ankio Briggs who stated this while fielding questions from our reporter, Tina Amanda said that INEC has failed Nigerians by not conducting a truly democratic electoral process.
According to her, INEC should justify itself by producing the card readers for proper auditing and vetting to ensure that the electoral process was not rigged.
‘’There is no state in the 36 states that people were not disenfranchised. I am more pained at the level of violence that was unleashed on the people of Niger Delta particularly in my community Abonnema in Akuku Toru local government area of Rivers state. People were killed, people who were running that was not armed were shot in the back by thugs.
‘INEC failed woefully, when ballot boxes, electoral materials were taking away even before the materials were distributed by men in uniform whose names were identified.
“In my community, distribution of electoral materials didn’t get there and so many people didn’t vote.
“Those who were denied from exercising their basic constitutional rights, how will they vote again because the presidential result has already been called, so those electorates who were killed died for nothing.
“For me, what I saw in this election was compromise by INEC, and INEC officials who are supposed to be professors cannot tell the nation that the collation figures presented were the rightful figures”
The Niger Delta activist called for the restructuring of the country adding that only restructuring can stop the abuse of democracy in Nigeria.
“Nigeria must be restructured to stop this kind of assault on democracy, the rape on democracy, the abuse of people, the disrespect of the Nigerian people and to the people that have died and the disrespect of what they fought for, the people that are suffering today, the disregard to their sufferings and to the future that is not in the future at all.
“What we saw played out is the worst election and unless Nigerians reject this process, it will continue”
She stressed that this kind of electoral process of violence will scare away foreign investors to invest in the growth of the economy of the nation.
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