Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson of the Peter Obi presidential
campaign council (south-east), says the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) should prosecute Atiku Abubakar.
Okonkwo, who made the remark in an interview with Channels
Television on Thursday, said the presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) should have been disqualified for “ethnic profiling”.
While speaking at a town hall meeting in Kaduna on October
15, Abubakar said northerners need a president from the north — and not someone
of Igbo or Yoruba extraction.
Okonkwo said the statement is genocidal and capable of truncating the nation’s democracy.
“If there’s anybody
that his team has been extinguished completely, it’s that of Atiku Abubakar,
who of course should have been disqualified by now,” he said.
“By going to the north and making a genocidal statement that
northerners should vote for north only; this was what caused genocide in Rwanda
when Hutus were told that they should not support Tutsis because they are
cockroaches.
“Atiku Abubakar went to the north and said northerners
should support only the people from the north — not Yoruba, not Igbo.
“That’s ethnic
profiling. That’s genocidal statement. Atiku knows he has failed, what he’s
trying to do now is to make sure that he destroys our democracy after he’s
failed.”
Okonkwo cited section 97 of the Electoral Act 2022 as the
basis for INEC to take action against Atiku.
“This should be called to order. INEC should be implementing
section 97 of the Electoral Act on Atiku because that’s a criminal offence,”
the actor-turned-politician said.
“Trying to profile ethnic and religious groups. He is unfit
and he’s a threat to our democracy.”
Section 97 of the Electoral Act 2022 states that: “(1) A
candidate, person or association that engages in campaigning or broadcasting
based on religious, tribal, or sectional reason for the purpose of promoting or
opposing a particular political party or the election of a particular
candidate, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction – (a)
to a maximum fine of Nl,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or
both; and (b) in the case of a political party, to a maximum fine of
N10,000,000.”
Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers, had also criticised the
statement made by Atiku, noting that the PDP needs to apologise to Nigerians.
On its part, the All Progressives Congress described the PDP
standard bearer as desperate and unfit to be in charge of the country.
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