The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, has appealed to Godswill Akpabio to step down from his position as Senate President following recent investigations alleging that he benefited from electoral fraud in 2019.
Speaking in an interview with Arise News Television, he revealed that the returning officer, Professor Peter Ogban, who oversaw the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial Election in 2019, was recently convicted by the Court of Appeal for manipulating the results, from which Godswill Akpabio allegedly benefited.
He explained that it does not reflect well on Nigerian democracy for Godswill Akpabio to remain in a position of governance while possibly benefiting from a crime committed by Peter Ogban, who may be serving a three-year jail sentence. Auwal Rafsanjani urged that the right thing be done, calling on Godswill Akpabio to voluntarily step down from his position.
His words: “For him to preserve the sanctity and the dignity of that position as Senate President, he is like number three in the country and if your election is having this serious integrity deficit, then you need to make that sacrifice to show that you are not desperate and you are not out there at all cost to stay in that position unless it is a personal interest.
“If it is for the public interest, there is no argument, there is no worry, you can simply step aside and apologize to the nation because there is no way the Professor will go to jail and you are sitting, enjoying, irrespective of which election it is”.
