2023 governorship election: Group commends Nigerians, urges Buhari to end naira scarcity

The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWGN) has commended Nigerians for their peaceful conduct in the Gubernatorial and States Assembly elections held across the country, Saturday, March 18, 2023.

MMWGN however condemned pockets of violence in some parts of the country and called for immediate prosecution of all those arrested for electoral crimes.

In a press release signed by the National Coordinator of MMWGN, Mal. Ibrahim Abdullahi, Sunday, the group commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies on the success of the election, pointing out that both the electoral umpire and security official did creditably well.

It therefore appealed to all to accept the results of the elections as might be released by the INEC in line with the peace accord signed before the elections.

The group stated that those who committed electoral crimes and arrested in the two segmental elections held throughout the Federation must not be freed but tried appropriately in the courts of law.

It warned that “in all elections held in the country so far, punishment for electoral offences has been non-existent,” adding that this year’s election must not go the same way as we now have revised electoral laws that punish electoral offences. It also called on the 9th National Assembly to pass the Bill submitted by the Executive for the establishment of National Electoral Offences’ Commission (NEOC) before the end of its tenure.

The group commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his fight against corruption, including vote-buying but called on him to give a Presidential Order immediately to the Central Bank of Nigeria to end the artificial scarcity created by the CBN on new and old naira scarcity.

Muslim Media Watch Group stated further that “with the election over, barricade of gates of commercial banks and lock-out of bank customers must come to an end from tomorrow (20th March, 2023) as Nigerians of all categories have been tormented and humiliated with difficulties they had in accessing their funds in various commercial banks for the past 6 weeks.”

On the low turnout of voters in Saturday’s election, the group attributed it to lack of confidence in our democratic system by the people; adding that most parties’ primaries that produced most of the contestants were full of infractions and shady deals, warning that for democracy to survive in Nigeria, there must be political and judicial reforms.