Huriwa To Nigerians-: Thank Donald Trump, Boris Johnson For Inec's Good Behaviour In Edo Guber Poll:

"The good people of Edo State and by extension the whole of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be thankful to the decisive actions of the Governments of both the United States of America and the United Kingdom in slamming extensive travel bans on election riggers for the decency and near perfect management of the much talked about Edo State's governorship poll which has apparently seen the electorate having the last laugh contrary to what obtained in much of the previously conducted elections by the Independent National Electoral commission headed by Mr Mahmood Yakubu and especially the violence prone GOVERNORSHIP polls in Kogi and Bayelsa which actually propelled the recent VISA sanctions imposed on some notorious election manipulators. We in the organised civil society community in Nigeria will consistently sustain the campaign for electoral probity and sanity just as we will use this opportunity of the freest and fairest elections that has ever happened since 2015 to warn the President of the Court of Appeal and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to buckle up and shake off the accumulated public image nightmares haunting the Judicial system because of the tendencies for bribery and corruption by most judges handling post elections litigation in the Country. We want to warn that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has become ethically challenged and has become notorious as the All Progressives Congress wing of the nation's judiciary which demands comprehensive reforms and REORGANIZATION".

With the above summation, the Prominent Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has challenged the Independent National Electoral commission(INEC) to wage a determined internal warfare against systemic and systematic ineptitude and compromises which constitute the greatest threats to conduct of free, fair, peaceful and transparent elections in Nigeria just as the Rights group said the electoral Commission was forced to sit up by the strong warning from the United States of America and the United Kingdom to impose travel ban on any election manipulators in the Edo state governorship poll.

"The timely issuance of a public reprimand by the two major global democracies of the United States of America and the United Kingdom is the single most important reason behind the decision by the usually institutionally weak and corrupt Independent National Electoral commission headed by Mr Mahmood Yakubu to respect the popular will of the good people of Edo state to DEMOCRATICALLY elect a governor of their choice. We congratulate the good people of Edo state for achieving this political mileage and indeed a revolution of democratically picking their choice as their political leader for the next four years and we are hoping that the re -elected governor Godwin Obaseki will not disappoint the confidence reposed in him by the hundreds of thousands of the electorate of Edo State. He saw how determined most of the good people of Edo state were to ensure that their state is not hijacked by a desperate political clique aligned to a maverick political warlord in Lagos."

The Rights group said the nation must not go to sleep but the citizens should actively demand that the National Assembly and the Federal Government of Nigeria put the strategic steps and measures in place and on time to reform the electoral system beginning with the appointment of a top quality Nigerian who is not compromised to head the Independent National Electoral commission just as the Rights group said there is the urgency of the moment to ensure that election riggers are subjected to the due process of the law and punished for their misconduct which constitute a grave threat to our constitutional democracy.

HURIWA recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Godwin Obaseki, winner of the governorship election in Edo State.

The Rights group said INEC’s Returning Officer, Prof. Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, announced the total result of the election just as he said APC polled 223,619 votes, while PDP got 307,955 votes.

HURIWA recalled that the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki of PDP ran against APC flagbearer Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and 13 others.

HURIWA has asked the losers of the FREEST AND FAIREST GOVERNORSHIP POLL IN NIGERIA SINCE 2015 to congratulate the winner and not go to court for litigation because of the unambiguous evidence that the conduct of the election was free, fair, transparent and importantly Peaceful.