Groups Protest in London over Outcome of Presidential Election
Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
A coalition of groups advocating for true Democracy in Africa yesterday took to the streets in London alleging electoral fraud and voter suppression in the February 25 presidential election held in Nigeria.
The group, while protesting, told the UK government that it spent no less than £5 million during the Nigerian election, therefore there is need to protest over their invested interest to ensure that the right things were done.
While alleging voter suppression and intimidation during the presidential election, the group also knocked the Nigerian government for showing less attention to the security of the voters as political thugs harassed and intimidated voters.
Addressing the protesters at Trafalgar Square in London, the founder of Good Governance Institute (GGI), Marcel Ngogbehei, who led the protest, said “the entire world would be affected if Nigeria with over 200 million population is faced with a crisis.”
He stressed that it was time for the international communities to get involved and avoid the looming crisis over the outcome of the 2023 presidential election which some said was fraudulent following obvious and reported cases of irregularities and also the inability of the electoral umpire to address the issue when it could.
“Nigeria has over 200 million people, a crisis in Nigeria will affect the entire world. This is the time for the entire world and the international community to get involved.
“It is the people that determine who leads them, not a few individuals. What we are saying is that the people’s vote must count, we must protect the right of the people to choose their leaders, we cannot hand it over to a few individuals.
“What we are saying is that the British government must take interest in ensuring that the right of the citizens to choose their leaders is protected. The British government cannot spend £5 million of British taxpayers’ money in Nigeria and turn the other eye while we have a fictitious election.
“Over £5m of UK taxpayers money was committed to the Nigerian Elections, and all we got was this sham, the British Government has one of the best intelligence agencies and we’re certain that they must have accurately reported what transpired in Nigeria. The Foreign Secretary has no business congratulating anyone in this election until the entire process is concluded… doing this amounts to taking sides.
“All we are saying is that we need to save Nigeria’s democracy, the Nigerian government has a duty to protect all Nigerians to ensure that they vote, what we witnessed in the February 2023 election was intimidation, while the security agencies and government looked the other way and political thugs took over the streets of the country.
Ngogbehei said the International Community must begin to hold the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to account, by asking them to follow their laid down guidelines.
“They have a duty to demand from INEC the effective use of their citizens’ tax money in Nigeria”, he added.
