*Says Obasanjo’s Endorsement of Obi is His Right
The National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, Dan Nwanyanwu, on Tuesday, expressed confidence that the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System into the electoral system of the country and the new cash withdrawal limit by the Central Bank of Nigeria will curb electoral malpractices.
Nwanyanwu made the assertions while appearing on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Tuesday alleging that some politicians were canvassing strongly to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System during the elections through what he called dubious litigations.
He said gone are those days when politicians rig elections noting that the introduction of BVAS into the system will correct many wrongs in the system.
“The threat against the 2023 general election is potent. We have seen a lot of insecurity across the country.
“The latest being the attempt by some political parties to truncate the use of BVAS and IREV and also taking some legal processes to get the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to be removed from office and to ban him from holding public office for 10 years.
“First of all, they went to a court in Umuahia, they had no facts, they presented nothing, it was based on speculation. The court dismissed it, they went to the Court of Appeal, and it was also dismissed. They came back to Abuja and it was dismissed last week. They might go elsewhere soon because they are on forum shopping.
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“I met some parliamentarians a week before Christmas at a public place and they were calling me Mr. BVAS and when I asked the reason for calling me that name, they said I am talking too much about the BVAS.
“During our discussion, they said they regretted passing the law that it was not explained well to them and if they had known, it would not have been passed. I told them it is too late to change anything but they said it would be amended. So, you can see that there are various interests that do not want free, fair and credible elections.
“We are talking for common good. If you put bad people in government, they have nothing to offer and this is why we want the best laws and capacity and political will to get the right things done,” he said
NPO Reports that the Central Bank had, in a circular issued on December 6, 2022, placed a maximum limit on over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate organisations per week in order to reduce the amount of cash in circulation.
However, Nwanyanwu who is also the presidential candidate of his party, maintained that if CBN’s policy is implemented, it will help sanitise the political system and get rid of unnecessary financial inducements.
He said, “The menace of vote-buying is the reason why we support this new policy by the CBN on cash movements.
“There is no way it won’t affect those who carry a huge amount of money to the polling unit, and that is why you see them crying. They want it to be changed and stepped down.
“We thank Mr. President for giving approval for that and by the end of this month, any old money kept in obscure locations becomes toilet paper and they should further our access to the new notes until after the elections.
“That is a very good policy the Central Bank brought which Mr. President graciously approved.”
Speaking about the spate of attacks in the South-East, Nwanyanwu said that insecurity in the region was imported purposely to demarket the region from leading the country.
He said the April 5, 2021 prison break at the Owerri Correctional Centre was a turning point in the security crisis.
According to him, the difference since the time of the prison break is that the conspirators have been able to partner with some locals to do their dirty jobs.
“About the insecurity in the South-East, I have made my position very clear, right from the time there was a jailbreak in an Imo facility at Owerri prisons. My position was very clear and that’s still my position.
“The insecurity you have seen in the South-East was imported because of where we’re going now so that they will demarket people like us from the South-East that we cannot be president because there is insecurity in our place. It was imported!” he said.
“At the time we had the jailbreak in Owerri, those people were not Igbo. They were not IPOB. They were not ESN. But they have discovered that that would be exposing them too much those who did it.
“Now, they’ve succeeded in recruiting locals, never-do-wells, charlatans, who have nothing to do. No skill, no education. They are the ones doing the killings today in the South-East.
“And the intendment has not changed. The intendment is to demarket the South-East so that every Nigerian will say, ‘How can you be president when there is insecurity in your place as if that is the only place we have had such a thing, which is a new thing in the South-East.”
Commenting on the recent endorsement of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nwanyanwu said everybody is entitled to his/her opinion.
“I don’t have problem with any endorsement. It is their right to do so and most of the times it would not work the way you think.
“So, anybody, any citizen whether senior citizen or an association can endorse anybody. We are going to the market to seek for votes. We’re going for the race. There is no need for anybody to be worried over any endorsement,” he said