Maverick showbiz superstar, Charles Oputa aka Charlyboy, has led his civil society organisation, OurMumuDonDo, on Friday to stage a protest to demand for the arrest and prosecution of the former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, for admitting that he helped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rig elections in the past.
The protesters, who converged at the Headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Abuja on Friday, submitted a protest letter to the electoral body on the need to expedite action and prosecute Senator Mantu for subverting the freewill of Nigerians.
Addressing journalists after the submission of the letter the National Secretary of the movement, Raphael Adebayo, said that confession and revelation of Senator Mantu shows that corruption is endemic in the electoral system, adding it would continue to hunt the nation forever if nobody speaks about it.
According to him “Since the beginning of the First Republic, the vote of the electorates in Nigeria has consistently diminished and this can be simply traced to the different existence of electoral malpractices among many others. We have the issue of election rigging which Senator Mantu admitted,” Adebayo stated.
He called on relevant authorities to swing to action and make the senator and his accomplices who have committed the heinous act face the wrath of the law.
In a letter submitted to the INEC, the group stressed that since the Senator had confessed to the crimes against the nation that do not carry a statute of limitations, adding that this was a good opportunity for INEC to demonstrate its resolve to prosecute electoral offenders as a deterrent to others.
The group stated that Nigerian youths have become utterly distrustful of the electoral process owing to the humongous malpractices which have been in vogue since 1999.
“As we are approaching the 2019 general elections, it is crucial that all efforts must be made to sanitise the electoral process and reinforce the hope and trust of the electorates in Nigeria. And this is particularly urgent as the Osun and Ekiti states gubernatorial elections are fast drawing near,” the group explained.
Senator Mantu recently confessed during an interview on Channels Television’s programme, Hard Copy, that he helped the PDP to rig elections by bribing officials of INEC as well as security agents.
