—SAYS , ISSUES TOO WEIGHTY TO BE SWEPT UNDER CARPET
Human Rights’ Group, FORUM FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES, (FADEPA), has called for the arrest and investigation of the House of Assembly member-elect for Ezinihittee Mbaise State Constituency, Hon. Henry Agbasonu, over a document linked to him in which he allegedly made some shocking revelations on how he disbursed funds given to him during the last election.
The document which has gone viral was said to have been initially posted by Agbasonu to certain WhatsApp platforms , from where it went into circulation, has generated a lot of reactions.
ln the document, Agbasonu gave vivid account of how he allegedly paid INEC officials, security personnel and others , which many have found to have run foul of the Constitution, the Electoral Act, INEC guidelines and other electoral practices.
In a release on Thursday, and signed by the Coordinator and Secretary of FADEPA, Comrade Maxwell lwujiaku and Cyril lhekanwa, respectively, the IGP, EFCC, ICPC , INEC and other relevant agencies were called upon to investigate the claims of Agbasonu as contained in the document that has been in public domain for more than one week now.
The release added, ” we have also read the reaction of Agbasonu to the publications arising from the document in question. And we were able to observe that Mr Agbasonu did not deny being the author of the controversial document.
” We are also aware that he had deleted the document from the platform he first posted it. But unfortunately for him, the document had been lifted and saved by others on the same platform. And the document has also been in circulation.
“The claims he made in the document offended all the relevant laws with regard to conduct of elections. The claims all showed that the processes of the House of Assembly election in Ezinihittee Mbaise were heavily compromised.
” This is why , the IGP , EFCC, ICPC , INEC and other relevant bodies should wade into the matter and properly investigate the claims contained in the document and to ensure that the right actions are taken by those concerned”,the group stated.
According to the group, INEC in Particular should be interested in cases of this nature to see if it can begin to regain the people’s confidence in its operations, adding that, for a candidate in an election to come up with how he paid electoral officers and security personnel should not be treated with kid glove.
” We are therefore calling on the agencies concerned to do the needful and which is to thoroughly investigate Agbasonu, establish the facts or otherwise of his claims and for the appropriate actions to be taken, in the interests of our electoral system and the electorate ” , they added.
