Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has knocked President Muhammadu Buhari for asking the National Assembly to remove clause 84(12) of the electoral.
The President in his speech during the signing of the bill on Friday told the legislators that the portion of the bill which bans serving political office holders from voting or being voted for at Conventions or Congresses of any political party to expunge because it contravenes the provision of the constitution.
Governor Wike in a statement on Friday released by his spokesman, Kelvin Ebiri, said the President is selfish to have asked the lawmaker to remove clause 84(12) from the electoral act.
The Rivers governor said Buhari should stop trying to protect his appointees, adding that the request shows that President doesn’t believe in free, fair and transparent elections.
“Mr President has told the world he is trying to protect some of his appointees who want to run election, and who are afraid of leaving office knowing fully well that having left the office, it would be difficult for them to assert or to influence the outcome of party primaries,” Wike said, according to a statement by Kelvin Ebiri.
“If Mr President really believes in free, fair and transparent election, and for everybody to have a level playing ground, Mr President will not call for such amendment.
“Mr President knows the function of the legislature is to make laws. The function of the executive is to implement the law, and the function of the judiciary is to interpret the law.
“Now Mr. President is not only doing the work of the executive, he has also delved into the work of the judiciary of interpreting the law, knowing where there is conflict.
“I wonder why Mr President didn’t know when he appended his signature to the Police Trust Fund; that was in conflict with the provision of the constitution.”
Wike stated that the electronic transmission of election results inserted in the new act will boost the confidence of Nigerians in their elected representatives.
“For whatever it is worth, let us say Nigerians are happy that after all said and done, the president and the APC administration, for the first time, have bowed to pressure of Nigerians in order to have a law that enables our electoral process to be transparent. But again, this tells you the kind of party in power.
“Electronic transmission of results will give confidence to the people, to the electorate; and anybody who is elected will now sit up to say it is not going to be business as usual,” he said.
