Epiphany Azinge, SAN, has declard that the 2015 general elections in Nigeria was massively rigged by politicians.
Azinge made the declaration in his
keynote address delivered at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar
Association, NBA Warri Law Week held in Warri, Delta State yesterday.
In his words, “Let the truth be
told, the last election was rigged as any other we have witnessed. The
difference was that political parties rigged massively in their comfort zones.”
Azinge who spoke on “Nigeria
Enduring Democracy: The Challenge of Effective Electioneering and Independence
of the Judiciary” noted that the 2015 electioneering campaigns was
characterized by the desperation on the sides of the political parties who
indulged in hate campaigns to succeed.
He blamed the Nigerian Media for
playing ignoble role in promotion of hate campaign, indicating that
all is fair in warfare, pointing out that derogatory statements were freely
used during the electioneering campaigns.
Azinge posited that the police and
the civil defence be used in election monitoring while the military be
discarded.
According to him, “if need be, then
we should train and equip our police to handle such delicate issue.”
He blamed the Independent Electoral
Commission, INEC for failing to ensure compliance with constitutional limits
for campaign expenditure.
He suggested better welfare
conditions for Judges and Judicial Staff in the country by evaluating the salary structure of judges and
how safeguard they are and examination of the process of appointment, discipline and removal of judges and
to know if the other arms of government are capable of compromising the
judiciary because of financial control or lack of autonomy.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar
Association, NBA Warri Branch led by the Chairman, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins
(Esq.) has demanded a probe of the administration of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for
allegedly mortgaging the state into a debt profile of N637.22 billion.
Aikpokpo-Martins said, “It will not
be acceptable to pretend that our common patrimony had not been rapaciously
devoured by the past gatekeepers; doing things differently will not be enough.
We
demand a probe because Deltans deserve to know.”
demand a probe because Deltans deserve to know.”
He also called on the Okowa led
government to cancel the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT at Warri/Sapele road which was
embarked upon by Uduaghan and restore same to its former state, noting that it
poses great hazard to the lives, property and vehicular movement as well as cause loss of man hours among others.
He also appealed to the governor to
prevail on the contractor handling the Warri High Court Complex Project to return to site and
resume work with a view to completing the project.
Delta State Governor, Sen. Arthur
Ifeanyi Okowa who was represented by the Commissioner for Housing, Arch. Joseph
Ajiri Ogeh promised to tackle the menace the BRT is causing Deltans
Vanguard
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