Senator Durojaiye raises alarm over attacks on INEC offices, police stations; says it’s a threat to 2023 elections

By Ovasa Ogaga,——————–

A fourth republic lawmaker, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, has raised alarm over the recent upsurge in the attack on offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission and police station across the country, saying that if the ugly trend is not checked, it could threaten the 2023 general election.

The elder statesman, who was a former presidential aspirant he described the burning of INEC offices and attack on police stations in some parts of Nigeria as ominous signs that all was not well, he, however, was optimistic that elections would hold in 2023.

Durojaiye disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Ikeja on Thursday, said, “I believe the 2023 election will hold because I am an optimist.

“If you have an adjustment within the next six months, we can conduct the 2023 election. But if nothing is done urgently to the attacks on INEC offices and police stations, I don’t see us having the (2023) election.

“It is disheartening; it is an ominous sign for INEC offices and police stations to be constantly attacked. This is a bad sign for the country. It is something that the authorities should really look at carefully.

Durojaiye, however, expressed the need for Nigerians to do away with the 1999 Constitution, which he said was put together by the military.

“Let us seize this opportunity to jettison the 1999 Constitution crafted by the military in the borrowed gown of ‘We the people and revive a truly federal constitution which our political founding fathers painstakingly agreed to after a series of constitutional conferences in Nigeria and Britain (Lancaster House) between 1956 and 1960.”

He appealed to those seeking division of the country to shelve the idea, adding that Nigeria, with its size, was better off than a balkanized nation, maintaining that the country should be reconstituted into six regions.

Durujaiye said, “The country has a great advantage being together than being disintegrated. We have potential. I am of the opinion that Nigeria should be reconstituted into six Regions with the federating units exercising residual powers earlier indicated in this memorandum.”

THE PUNCH