In response to the recent off-cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo States, prominent constitutional lawyer and anti-corruption activist Itse Sagay noted that politicians’ desperation to gain power was growing and accused them of manipulating the electoral process in spite of promises from relevant agencies of free and legitimate elections.

Election malpractices, vote-buying, and turmoil typified the November 11 off-cycle election.

Sagay said in an interview with The Sun that the election’s events showed how desperate Nigerian politicians were to take control.

 

He expressed sorrow that electoral malpractices have occurred despite all efforts, including the Electoral Act and the implementation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) adopted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to ensure legitimate elections.

He said, “What I see in it is that the human nature of the Nigerian politicians, the desperation to acquire power at any cost is even getting higher.

“What we are witnessing is very unfortunate, people writing results on result sheets before the election, which is so discouraging.

“All the efforts that have been made, the Electoral Act, the BVAS, so much have been done, but the human nature, which I will call the animal nature with the Nigerian increases with each precautionary step to protect the electoral process.

“I was very sad about quite several things. In some places, I heard that there was no voting at all and results were still produced from those areas. This is crazy.”