NBA chief faults Atiku’s verdict on presidential poll

The immediate past national legal adviser of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Rafiu Balogun, has disagreed with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, verdict on the just concluded presidential election 

Balogun, former chairman of NBA, Ilorin branch argued that Atiku’s verdict was at variance with local and international teams that monitored the poll and described the elections as credible.

He urged Nigerians to appreciate INEC recalling that many elections held in the past under the PDP administration were not only fraught with irregularities but were upturned by the tribunals.

He cautioned the opposition leaders against making incendiary comments and urged to shun any act capable of throwing the nation into chaos.

The NBA chieftain noted that the barrage of accolades coming from foreign observers and the international community lent credence to the credibility of the poll.

Balogun therefore urged Atiku to approach the court if he has genuine evidence of electoral infractions.

“For anyone to say that the last electoral was the worst in Nigeria’s history that is not correct. I think our leaders should be honest whenever they are reacting to issues. We have had elections in the past supervised by the PDP and we know how they all ended. Many of such elections were upturned by the tribunals.

“Even during the era of late President Umaru Yar’adua who was a member of the PDP, he publicly acknowledged that the election that brought him in was fraught with irregularities.

“So, how can Atiku tell us now that the last presidential election was the worst in Nigeria? If Atiku and his party have other evidence let them bring it out and show it to the public,” Balogun said.

Although Balogun admitted that Nigeria electoral system required some improvement, he however said that isolated incidences of violence and ballot snatching could be used to invalidate the entire process. 

“We must give kudos to INEC in spite of the pockets of violence. Because there must be human errors but that does not mean that we should score INEC low. For me, the INEC has been transparent.

“Just look at the rigour of bringing results from different parts of the country to Abuja, something that ordinarily should have been done electronically. All these risks were taken by INEC to ensure that the process was transparent. 

“This is so because our law does not accommodate transmission of results electronically. That is not to say that the INEC cannot do better it can learn from its mistakes and improve upon the process in the subsequent elections.”

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