CPC PRESS RELEASE: LEMU REPORT: Any hope for its implementation? - By: Rotimi Fashakin

Sequel to the post-election violence that erupted in some parts of
Northern Nigeria after the 2011 general elections, the ruling People
Democratic Party (PDP) made spirited efforts to demonize the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and its national leader, General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB).

First, a notable journalist and newspaper columnist became a hireling in using his Guardian Newspaper column (on 22nd April, 2011) in disseminating unfounded piece of disinformation about GMB and CPC. He was eventually rewarded – for the hatchet job- with a plum appointment as the Senior Adviser to the President on media and Publicity upon the latter’s inauguration on 29th May, 2011.

Second, on the basis of the mendacious scribble of this unscrupulous hireling and with immense state resources, the cyberspace, like the nation space, became engulfed in falsehood about GMB and CPC!

Third, as a way of giving legal and institutional impetus to its
propagandist schemes, the PDP-led Federal Government empanelled on 11th May, 2011 a group of twenty-two (22) eminent Nigerians- in what became known as the Lemu committee - to investigate the cause of the
Post-election violence.

The Panel submitted its report to the
Government on 10th October, 2011 containing far-reaching
recommendations. Whilst the Lemu Committee was still sitting, the police authorities declared at a public forum that: “No fewer than 5,356 people were arrested during and after the April 2011 General Elections in the country for electoral offences. Out of the number, 2,341 were arrested before the polls and 3,015 for post-election violence.”

The poser is:
What has happened to those apprehended by the Police for perpetrating this heinous crime against humanity? Left off the hook? Remanded in police custody? Being prosecuted in a court of law? Nigerians need to know.

Meanwhile, aside identifying – as a major cause of electoral violence – existing widespread desire by the people for change as a result of the parlous state of the Nation’s infrastructure and legitimized culture of impunity festered by the PDP rulers since 1999 and previous governments, the Lemu Committee recommended the setting up of Electoral Offences’ Tribunal.

In May, 2012 – more than seven months after submission of Lemu report - the PDP-led Federal Government (with much fanfare) adopted the establishment of special electoral offences’ tribunal as part of the implementation of the Lemu panel. It is more than nine months after the release of the white-paper, and there is absolutely nothing to show that this very important endeavour is being pursued with pertinacious vigour.

Indeed, the nonchalance of this regime on this score connotes that:
• The Jonathan regime did not really intend to unearth the truth about the post-election violence in 2011 but sought to use the eminent Nigerians in the Lemu Panel as pawns to be used to indict CPC and its leader, GMB!
• The Jonathan regime, being the greatest beneficiary of the anomalous electoral system in 2011, is unwilling to make fundamental changes that will truly give sovereignty to the Nigerian people.
• The PDP will be unwilling to support any sustainable, expeditious trial of electoral offences because electoral manipulations and infractions have become the reason for its tenacious hold on political power in these thirteen years.

As a Party, we call on the Nigerian people to demand the
implementation of this report without any further delay. It is in so
doing that true democratic values shall be deepened in the Nigerian polity.

God bless Nigeria.

Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC.
(Thursday, February 28, 2013).