Ozekhome warns Buhari to stop war mongering

By Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Reactions have continued to trail the statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari in which he is quoted to have urged the military at a meeting of the All Progressives Council (APC) leadership, to shoot election offenders when he said “snatch a ballot box at the expense of your life”. Describing the statement as grossly reckless, incendiary, provocative and capable of instigating violence, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome called on President Buhari to stop war mongering. The senior lawyer accused the presidential of usurping the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police through his statement, saying the Electoral Act has already taken care of such matters. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Electoral Act has already taken care of such matters as he appeared suddenly to be aware of Section 129(4) of the Act 24 years imprisonment for anyone who snatches ballot boxes at an election. Section 131 of the Electoral Act on the other hand prescribes N1 million fine or 3 years imprisonment for anyone who directly or indirectly inflicts injury on others, or causes harm, violence, or uses duress and undue influence for the purpose of winning an election. The law is quite clear. It never prescribes the death penalty as Buhari wants to force in”. Ozekhome stated. Accusing president Buhari and the APC led government of exhibiting desperation to cling unto power, he advised the presidency not to take Nigerians back to the dark days of military rule. “APC’s leading lights have so far preached terror, “body bags”, mayhem, strife, stoned their president and leaders, booed others, killed some in cold bloodshed, denied themselves tickets, and generally engaged in acts of  gansterism, hooliganism and shameless “agberoism”, quite unbecoming of a ruling Party. “Presidents don’t preach violence, nor engage in scare mongering, as Buhari is currently doing at every turn and opportunity. Presidents are known to be extremely cautious and restrained, even when others do not. This is because a president is supposed to approximate the highest ideals, morals and nobility of the national psyche, ethos and consciousness. “PMB still doesn’t appear to realise that he is no longer in opposition as he was between 2003 and 2015. He readily forgets, in his brazen desperation to cling on to power at all costs, that he is now the president of the largest black democracy on earth, made up of about 200 million people. “Buhari must be told in clear and unmistakable terms that this is not 2015 when he got away with preaching bloodshed of “bamboons being soaked in their own blood”, an act that made gentleman Goodluck Jonathan voluntarily abdicated power as president on the mantra of “my ambition is not worth the drop of any Nigerian’s blood”. The statement is grossly reckless, incendiary, provocative, bellicose, belligerent and wholly condemnable. He even literally read the riot act to INEC chairman and staff, threatening them with fire and brimstone, if they do not do his bidding. This is to strike fear in them, as he has done to the judiciary, NASS, the press and voices of the opposition and critics”.