The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has made an announcement, saying that they asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after the delegates of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP (for) during the just concluded presidential primary election in Abuja. They lambasted the process that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP party in the upcoming 2023 general elections.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, claimed that Atiku’s win of the ticket was completely compromised by undue monetization, and accused the party of only giving the candidate slot to the person with the highest bid. Onwubiko said that it was disappointing that the EFCC only showed up at one primaries location, the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja and implied that the Commission had been operating under the falsehood that the mass bribery of delegates wasn’t happening elsewhere.
Allegedly, delegates for the presidential primaries were given at least $35,000 each by some candidates from the northern region, and to make matters interesting, the bribery allegations are yet to be refuted by the individuals implicated.
Speaking on this, Onwubiko said that Nigerians were shocked at the corruption fiesta that was Sunday night’s PDP presidential primary and named the withdrawal from the PDP race by former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi; and businessman, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen; as prime evidence of the cesspool, the primaries had degenerated into by then.
HURIWA, through Onwubiko strongly condemned the alleged conspiracy by the EFCC to pretend to not be aware that bribes had been exchanged at the events and described the entire fiasco as “shameful.” They urged the top echelons of the EFCC to put aside their personal feelings and relationships and prosecute the over 700 delegates that had participated in the compromised primaries.
