The Centre For Grassroots Development and Crime Prevention, a civil society organisation (CSO), has urged security services in Ogun State to apprehend those involved in the major fraud in the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
According to the group, the spotlight should initially be focused on a dominant opposition party and its election candidates.
It was claimed that the ringleader and his associates had been scurrying from pillar to post in order to avoid arrest.
According to the CSO, those behind the fraud used a fictitious foundation to distribute approximately 200,000 Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards issued by a commercial bank and loaded with N10,000 each with the intent of buying votes across the state and influencing the outcome of the electoral process in their favour, thereby violating electoral law with near impunity.
The group asserted in a press statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Taiwo Salako, and made available to newsmen that the magnitude of electoral fraud perpetrated by the candidate and his party during the election was practically unprecedented in the state, and called on concerned authorities to address the infraction and make the perpetrators face the wrath of the law.
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Salako stated that after fouling the state’s political climate and flagrantly violating existing law and the Electoral Act, the principal actor and his co-conspirators in these crimes must be prosecuted to serve as a deterrence to others with the same mentality of electoral rascality.
He claimed that since the crime was committed and thus exposed, the party’s candidate has been fleeing from pillar to post in order to avoid arrest and prosecution, which explains his recent international trip.
As a result, the organisation demanded his prompt arrest, if necessary with the assistance of INTERPOL, saying that justice in such a case must not be delayed due to the negative impact on the people and the sanctity of the Nigerian election process.
Salako went on to say that the electoral violation perpetrated during the state’s gubernatorial election on March 18 without recourse to electoral law posed a serious threat to democracy not only in Ogun but throughout Nigeria.
