As preparations for the 2023 elections hot up in Nigeria, an international body, the Public Policy Research and Advocacy Council (PPRAC) has called for free, fair and hitch free polls.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by its President and Executive Program Director, Dr. Emeka Umerah and Regional Program Director (Africa Desk), Mr. Eric Oluwole, the body asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure that votes of the electorate count while moneybags are shut out of every segment of the electioneering process and from influencing the results.
It particularly called on INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to honour his repeated promises that the electoral body would be transparent and honest in fulfilling its mandate by ensuring that INEC delivers elections that Nigerians, Africans and the entire world will be proud of.
The group charged the commission: “Let the will of the Nigerian people prevail in all the 2023 elections starting with the Presidential Poll on February 25, 2023.
“By this, Prof Yakubu will write his name in gold in the annals of the history of this Country, Nigeria.”
The statement also called on the political parties and politicians to go about their campaigns and the entire electioneering process with maturity and sense of responsibility by shunning all forms of temptation to resort to violence to win at all cost against the will of the people.
It said that any victory that is fraudulently attained is temporary as the presumed winners of any dubious exercise will eventually lose such power and pay for their excesses against the Natural Laws no matter how long it takes.
The statement also asked the security agencies to discharge their duties honestly and courageously without fear or favour in monitoring the elections and ensure that they keep trouble at bay.
