The Executive Director, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Idris Miliki, has faulted the call by a legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), for the suspension of the 2023 general elections and the installation of an interim government in 2023.
Miliki described Babalola’s call for an interim administration as worrisome, a surprise and an utterance that should be condemned in strong terms.
The rights activists in a statement lamented that the elder statesman had, under the pretext of freedom of opinion and speech, called for the suspension of the nation’s constitution after the expiration of the tenure of the President, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (retd).
In the statement, he said, “The speech alluded to the senior citizen and even senior lawyer, Afe Babalola, calling for an interim government after the expiration of the current Administration should be condemned in all ramification.”
Miliki lamented that rather than making “meaningful suggestions and workable strategy that can secure our country towards peaceful conduct of elections,” Babalola had engaged in “provocative pronouncements that would not do the nation any good.”
He said such utterances by the legal luminary could lead to a constitutional crisis of monumental proportions.
Miliki wondered if there was a provision for an interim administration in the 1999 constitution as amended, calling for caution in the statements by Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general elections.
