With Rivers rerun, i's clear, free, fair, credible elections are dead under Buhari, APC: Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the yesterday

rerun National and State House of Assembly elections in Rivers State

as a sad reminder of the level of destruction already done to the

country's electoral process by the All Progressives Congress (APC)

government of President Mohammadu Buhari, saying; “Free, fair and

credible election is dead in the country and that whatever victory

that is recorded by any political party in the Rivers State election

will be nothing but victory at gun-point.”
The governor lamented that it was worrisome that the legacy of free,

fair and credible election left by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

has been destroyed less than two years that the APC assumed power,

saying; “We thought that we have gone past this era of manipulated

electoral process after the 2015 general elections, which brought the

APC and President Buhari to power, but the Buhari's administration has

taken us back to the stone age by merging his party, APC with the

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police, military

and other security agencies.”
In a release issued on Sunday, Special Assistant to the governor on

Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, quoted the

governor as saying that with what was witnessed in Rivers State

yesterday, it is clear that Nigeria is under siege and only prompt

intervention by the international community can save democracy in the

country from this imminent collapse.”
He said; “It is sad that snatching of ballot boxes, hijacking of

voting materials and electoral violence which had become a thing of

the past have now become part of our electoral process.

“It is even more worrisome that despite that votes are counted openly

at the polling units, electorates are no longer sure of the results of

elections until announcement by INEC, which has become an organ of the

APC,” the governor said.
Governor Fayose described President Buhari as a pretender, who has

only paid lips service to the sustenance of democracy in the country,

adding that “any president that looks the other way while the rights

of his people to freely elect their leaders is being snatched at

gunpoint by his own party men is not worthy of being associated with

democracy.”
He reiterated his call to the United States of America

President-Elect, Mr Donald Trump to focus his attention more on

Nigeria, with a view to saving the country from disintegrating,

saying; “God forbid, if Nigeria disintegrates, the entire continent of

Africa will disintegrate.
“The order of the day in Nigeria now is disobedience to court orders,

abuse of human rights, extra judicial killings and mass burial of

innocent Nigerians killed by the Army. The reality we must all face is

that should all these be allowed to continue, Nigeria faces imminent

danger and the international community must not allow the country to

get to that level of total collapse before it begins to call President

Buhari and his APC to order.”