Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has kicked against the recent visa ban imposed on politicians alleged to have rigged the November 2019 election in the North-Central state by the United States (U.S.).
The U.S. Government, on Monday, slammed a visa restriction on some individuals for allegedly rigging the November 2019 governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States as well as plot to rig the September 19 and October 10 Edo and Ondo governorship polls.
In a letter addressed to the U.S. Ambassador signed by the Secretary to the Government of Kogi State, Mrs Folashade Arike Ayoade, Bello said the U.S. should have created room, no matter how slim for a fair hearing.
In the letter titled, “Re: Visa Restrictions On Individuals And Inclusion Of The 2019 Kogi State Gubernatorial Elections In US State Department List Of Allegedly Compromised Elections – A Letter Of Protest”, Bello also urged the U.S. to accord greater empathy, more civility and much less disruption to nascent democracies.
The letter reads in part, “The Kogi State Government became aware of a United States Government list of individuals who received U.S. visa restrictions for alleged electoral malpractices via a Press Statement to that effect posted on your Embassy website.
“In your own words, the still-unnamed individuals are cited as guilty of ‘acts of violence, intimidation or corruption that harmed Nigerians and undermined the democratic process.’ They are also alleged to ‘have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights.
“You also noted in the statement that the sanctions are derived from unspecified misconducts by the said individuals which extend from the February/March 2019 General Elections in Nigeria through the off-cycle November 2019 gubernatorial elections in Kogi and Bayelsa to the as yet unheld governorship contests in Edo and Ondo States. Please note that for the purposes of this protest letter we are only interested in the citations to the extent that they are referable to Kogi State and her citizens.
“For the most part, we concede that elections in Nigeria are complex affairs which will continue to require improvements for the foreseeable future. The 2019 Kogi State Gubernatorial Election was also not without its challenges. However, it is also crystal clear from critical and composite analyses of the records (official, media, observers, etc) of the November 16, 2020 polls that regrettable incidents were limited to a few polling units, while the overwhelmingly larger portions of the ballot were free, fair and credible.”
Bello maintained that in line with Nigerian law, the few political parties and individuals who alleged widespread electoral malpractices had free rein to contest the outcome in court.
According to him, they vigorously litigated their claims over a grueling nine-month period, through a three-step hierarchy of courts, to the inescapable conclusion at the Supreme Court of Nigeria that the said elections satisfactorily complied with the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act.
“Our concern right now is not the prerogative of the United States of America to impose entry restrictions on anyone, for any or no reason at all, which prerogative remains unfettered, but the room for atrocious misinformation which the timing of your Press Statement and the mention of the Kogi elections therein has created in our state.
“For the February and March 2019 general elections, your advisory came out in July 2019, long before the Supreme Court delivered her judgements in the petitions against those elections, including challenges to President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection. The presumption is that in spite of your intervention, the Supreme Court still discovered no merit in the petitions and dismissed them accordingly.
“In our case, ie, Kogi State, you made the tactical decision to release the update shortly after the Supreme Court delivered judgements in the four petitions which made it before her. Amongst a plethora of well-reasoned pronouncements the Apex Court dismissed the said petitions for failing to prove their allegations and for having no ‘scintilla of merit’. The inference from your timing is that the judgement is somehow tainted and did not meet the justice of the case, thereby casting aspersions, not only on the Nigerian Judiciary, but on the second term mandate freely bestowed on His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello by the good people of Kogi State.
“We find this unacceptable, and we protest your presumption. The least you could have done, if indeed this is about democracy and human rights, as claimed is create room, no matter how slim, for fair hearing. As it is now, partisan speculations as to who is indicted, who is not and for what, has become cudgels, furiously swung in the media space by all comers. Your action has, therefore, added abundant grist to the rumour mills and electrified the merchants of fake news”.
He further noted that other players in the state’s political space, including candidates and officials of opposition political parties which lost the elections and could not prove their allegations in court have now latched onto the U.S. visa ban, holding media conferences and making press releases, claiming that the United States has justified their wild allegations and conspiracy theories where the courts and the administrative quarters failed. This, according to him, is is utterly regrettable.
He stressed that he is not challenging the visa ban but was only registering the strongest protest as a state to the collateral and unwarranted interference its political and social processes which it represents.
“We believe that if the United States of America, despite her commanding heights and much longer experience as the acclaimed Bastion of Democracy in the world, is still locked in a fight to defend the integrity of her own electoral processes to this very day, then she ought to accord greater empathy, more civility and much less disruption, to nascent democracies”.
