EDO: Nigeria’s democracy on the right path – Clark

A former Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark, on Wednesday hailed the peaceful conduct of Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.

In a statement he personally signed, the elder statesman commended President Muhammadu Buhari for ensuring the peaceful conduct of the election.

He also congratulated the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, his deputy, Philip Shuabu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on their success at the poll.

He declared that Nigeria was on the path of strengthening its democracy.

Clark said: “It is worthy of note to observe that it is a nascent sign of credible electoral processes in our country if the positive things that happened are sustained and improved upon.

“It is for this reason that I want to highly commend His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, for his roles and admonitions he gave to the politicians, the electoral umpire and the security agencies that for once, under his watch, INEC was able to conduct a free, fair and credible election, and the security agencies conducted themselves professionally before, during and after the election.

“This is a great departure from what was obtained in previous elections in the country like the 2018 election in Osun and last year’s governorship elections in Rivers, Kogi and Bayelsa just to mention a few.

“President Muhammad Buhari deserves to be commended and appreciated by all well-meaning Nigerians for his new disposition and commitment to free, fair and credible elections in the country.

“In the past, we had condemned Mr. President for being behind the audacious abuses of the electoral system, with the deployment of the so-called ’federal might’ to harass, intimidate, and deny citizens of their democratic rights.”