Off-cycle elections: INEC has become rigging department in APC – Timi Frank

***says Nigerians should expect worse in 2027

A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has called on Nigerians not to expect free, fair, transparent and credible elections in 2027 under the administration of President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to him, the level of electoral fraud, manipulation and rigging witnessed in Kogi and Imo states in the just-concluded off-cycle elections especially, pointed to the fact that no credible result can come out from future exercises, especially since INEC has now become a rigging department in APC.

Frank said these in a statement in reaction to the just concluded off-cycle governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States.

He said, “The election has nothing to write home about and to imagine that it was the first set of elections conducted under the watch of President Tinubu. What happened in Imo and Kogi is a clear indication of the kind of elections Nigerians will witness 2027.

“Our electoral system is presently in dire straits under our highly compromised Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which has now graduated from rigging by manipulating the INEC Result View (IReV) portal and the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) to writing results of polling units before the people cast their ballot.”

Frank who is the United Liberating Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East, lamented that when INEC which is now a rigging department under APC has finished manipulating results, the judiciary which is unfortunately now the legal department of the ruling party, will simply legalize what the electoral body has done.

“Besides, security agencies that were meant to protect voters and arrest riggers also took part in the rigging, while the police, and other security agencies are now a security department in the APC”, he emphasized.

He insisted that the brazen level of rigging in Imo and Kogi States was not surprising because Tinubu himself was installed President through rigging and other acts of impunity which the judiciary validated.

Frank said, “It is sad that when our democracy in Nigeria is meant to be progressing, it is rather retrogressing. Nigeria is now the worst country in terms of compromised election results compared to other African countries.

“We don’t make improvements, we don’t make progress. Things are getting worse. So in 2027, if Nigerians do not take the bull by the horns to fight to restore credibility in our electoral system, we’ll continue to have elections where the will of the people will not count. This is even so when the APC has appointed 10 of their card carrying members as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the INEC.

“This anti-democratic and unfortunate development is a clear indication that the conduct of the 2027 elections will be a formality to endorse only APC candidates either as freshers or for second term in their various offices.

“So if Nigerians want change, they should wake up and do the right thing, like other nations have done to defend their democracy.”

According to him, now that all the institutions of government that are meant to defend democracy, have practically compromised, “if we are not careful, Nigeria will turn to a one party state.”

He added, “It’s quite disappointing for a man, who under in the PDP regime was always crying, that the party wanted to turn Nigeria into a one party state, is unfortunately the one that is practically poised to officially turn Nigeria into a one party state like Uganda, Zimbabwe and Cameroon that have been under one party rule for decades.”

Frank lamented that opposition governors have compromised their parties and have failed to perform their role as opposition because of harassment and blackmail.

He said, “So the opposition governors, especially the PDP governors, have turned themselves into praise singers because they have been blackmailed them to jettison their role as leaders of opposition in the country.

“That’s why some of us have decided to bear the pains by doing everything in our power to legally defend our democracy and our country from turning into a one party state.

“We have commenced mobilizing Nigerians especially in the diaspora to save the country from the hands of election riggers and make sure our democracy stands.

“If we don’t stop Tinubu and APC, they will turn Nigeria into a one party state like Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Uganda.”

ENDS***