Jonathan Condemns Electoral Violence – “Nigerians, Not Courts Should Choose Leaders”

According to former President Goodluck Jonathan, the choice of the next group of political office holders, should be chosen by Nigerians through the democratic process rather than by the legal system.

He remarked on Saturday after casting his ballot in the contests for Gubernatorial and State House Of Assembly offices. Goodluck Jonathan (who also was a former Governor of Bayelsa State) and his wife Patience, cast ballots in Otuoke LGA, Bayelsa.

He told journalists

“I think Nigerians have decided that they must choose their leaders. Any country whose leaders cannot be chosen by the ballots is doomed. As a result, we must establish a system where voters, not judges, decide who leads us at the levels of president, governor, and parliamentarian. The leaders should be chosen by the ballots.”

Jonathan also praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting the Bayelsa elections on March 18 but frowned at the thugs’ destruction of election materials in four wards of Constituency 2 in the Ogbia LGA.

“In terms of the general security of the polls, everything is calm here, but I am alarmed because, within my local government, I learned that the state constituency 2 had crises and things had been burned.”

The former President urged security forces to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime right away, stressing that no one should tamper with Nigeria’s electoral process.