Calls for interim govt: We never asked military to take over – Free Nigeria Movement
The Free Nigeria Movement, a civil society organisation has denied wooing the military to take over government in Nigeria.
The group was reacting to a statement by the Department of State Services, DSS, that it has uncovered some key players in the plot for an Interim Government in Nigeria.
The secret police said the plot for an interim government is a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.
The comment by the DSS was in reaction to the week-long protest by the Free Nigeria Movement over the outcome of the presidential election.
The group had alleged that the election that ushered in Bola Tinubu as president-elect was marred with irregularities and should be nullified.
FNM had submitted letters to ECOWAS, UN, US Embassy as well as British High Commission to advise the Nigerian government to annul the election and enact an interim government.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja on Thursday, convener of the group, Moses Ogidi-Paul described the claim in some quarters that his group was calling for military intervention in Nigeria as false.
We can never account for the human cost of this dark period of our democracy and how terribly our institutions were traumatized.
“But the weaker they became the more power the political class amassed giving rise to what can best be described as the golden years of impunity.
“In 2020, the EndSARS protest provided an outlet for young
Nigerians to vent their displeasure with the system. It also exposed the extent of desperation by Nigerians and the proximity of most to the natural order of survival. The political order, seeing how much awake Nigerians had become, constructed a devilish plot to silence their voices.
“The cowardly shooting of young Nigerian protesters, despite holding the flag and singing the national anthem,
was how low they crept in their plot.
“We can never fully comprehend how much trauma that
unfortunate episode caused the nation and whether the victims will ever recover.
“But hope returned in the months leading up to the 2023 general elections with more Nigerians armed with clarity of what truly matters in their engagement with the system. Over ten million new names entered the voters register. Most of them were young people some of whom were first
time voters.
“So, when they came out to cast their votes on the 25th of February, 2023, it was not a repetition of the quarterly ritual but as a service to the nation, in knowing that by participating in the process that recruits leaders, they hold the right to demand for accountability.
But more so because the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud
Yakubu, had promised Nigerians of the commitment of the commission to the conduct of free, fair and all inclusive polls. He made submissions locally and on various international platforms assuring Nigerians and the world that the outcome would be transparent and such that will reflect
the will of the Nigerian people.
“This is besides the confidence that President Mohammadu Buhari’s signing of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) gave the willingness of Nigerians to participate in
the polls.
“Unfortunately, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu chose to desecrate the altars of truth and trust by collating
results and declaring a winner in flagrant disregard of the INEC guidelines and the Electoral Act
2022 (as amended).”
“This is why we have been marching for ten days now to call awake our national consciousness to the barrage of illegalities
committed during the presidential, national assembly, gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
“This is in part to ensure that President Mohammadu Buhari remains within the limit of his lawful tenure which elapses on 29th May, 2023, owing that the sixty days left of his tenure cannot suffice to call for a new presidential poll
should the courts heed the call of a vast majority of ordinary Nigerians and order for a new presidential election.
“Those claiming that our submission at the Ministry of Defence was to woo the military over a possible takeover are mischievous and desperate spin doctors whose only interest is to midwife instability in our polity. Their plan will never succeed.
“Our country cannot afford a return to the dark years of military dictatorship and given the contribution of Nigeria to political dispute in Mali and Gambia, that is not an option. On the said day, we had rounded up visits to the US Embassy
and the high Commissions of Britain and Canada, when we made a brief stop at the Ministry of Defence to read our press statement calling on the military to stay within the law in their conduct.
