A
former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Tam David-West, said on
Wednesday that election riggers in Nigeria deserved a death sentence.
David-West stated that rigging election
was worse than armed robbery and argued that since an armed robber would
always get a death sentence, any politician found guilty of subverting
the people’s wish at the poll should also bag a similar sentence.
The Professor of Virology, who spoke in a
telephone interview with The PUNCH, said it would be difficult for
Nigeria to experience free and fair elections if desperate politicians
were allowed to rig and go scot-free.
David-West was reacting to the outcome of
the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State,
describing it as a sham and a dent on the performance of the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
The former minister expressed surprise
that some persons were hailing the conduct of the election in Rivers
State, adding that it was wrong to describe an election that recorded
the highest level of violence in the country as “good.”
He said, “I have said that election
riggers should get death sentences. Rigging election is worse than armed
robbery. If an armed robber can be sentenced to death, election riggers
must face a similar punishment.
“That is the only way we could have
peaceful, free and fair elections in this country. It (election) was a
sham. From all I heard, in Buguma, Asari-Toru, there was no election as a
result of sporadic shooting in the area. Surprisingly, INEC released a
result.
“It is wrong for anyone to say that the
conducted election is good. Is it that some people see the deaths as
goodness? If an election is fraught with violence and other forms of
malpractices, if it is not corrected, it would stain the performance of
INEC.”
Expressing surprise that the Peoples
Democratic Party polled over one million votes, David-West stated that
it was not possible for the opposition party in the state to score only
over 100,000 votes.
David-West described the rigging in
Rivers elections as barefaced, maintaining that those who stole the
people’s votes did it without shame and commonsense.
On the incoming administration of
Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the ex-minister advised that the
president-elect should be given between six months to one year to show
his capability.
He described the rating of presidents and
governors after 100 days as unreasonable, adding that a president needs
at least six months to settle and begin to perform.
According to him, “This thing they call
100 days in office is nonsense. If a family packs into a new house, they
cannot settle within three months.
“But a good leader will make impact
within six months to one year. I have faith in Buhari and I believe he
is going to bring a lot of improvement to Nigeria.”
Copyright PUNCH.
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