Former Senator, Ayo Arise has expressed shock and displeasure over a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), branding him as one of the electoral offenders in the 2007 General Elections.
Arise, who represented Ekiti North Senatorial District argued that he could not phantom the basis for the purported report since he was duly elected and certified by the electoral body.
Reacting to the report in a Telephone Interview with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, the ex-legislator said the commission was totally unfair to his person, since he was neither invited nor questioned by its agents before the report was prepared and published.
He alleged that the commission, in a desperate bid to give some semblance of credibility to what he termed as ‘shoddy job’ only embarked on ‘brandname’ indictment.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Ekiti State disclosed that he had instructed his attorney to write a strongly worded petition to the commission to retract the report and tender an unreserved apology, failure of which would attract a legal action.
Arise posited that he had always being a strong advocate of any process or reform that would strengthen the electoral system cautioning that those saddled with the responsibility should not abuse the privilege giving to them by rubbishing the reputations of innocent Nigerians.
“When the issue of electronic Voting came up, I strongly supported the idea. For me the report is unfair and uncalled for. I think public servants should always take their job seriously. The HumanRights Commission which is supposed to protect my fundamental Human Rights is the one violating it. it Is quite unfortunate”, Arise lamented.
“I have asked my attorney to write them for a retraction and apology. And if it fails to do that, I will institute a legal action against the commission because I cannot allow anybody to rubbish my reputation which I have built over time.
“The Human rights Commission is totally unfair to me. It did not do a thorough job on the matter. It probably did a cut and paste based on online reports. Again, it probably did not study the case properly”, he added.
