Date Published: 05/11/09
ON SEGUN ONI’S FAKE VICTORY IN EKITI STATE
By JOE IGBOKWE
Though Governor Segun Oni of Ekiti State has been sworn in as Governor in
a small office in the Government House instead of an open field for all
and sundry to see and his popularity tested, I know that within the scope
of the conscience of the Governor and his retinue of supporters, they know
that the victory cannot stand. I am saying this because the world is yet
to know it all of how a ruling party that controls 30 out of 36 states in
Nigeria went to bribe, harass , maim , intimidate, kill, and rob the
people of their choice of Governor, at gun point.
Details of what transpired in Ekiti state on April 25 Rerun of the
Governorship election in 63 wards in 10 local governments are becoming
clearer by the day and to all intents and purposes it is becoming obvious
that the loot cannot be kept for too long. The useless, depraved, inept,
primitive, incompetent, corrupt, shameless, and unrepentant INEC led by
Professor Maurice Iwu may have been clicking glasses to celebrate the
pyrrhic victory of retaining Oni at all cost in Ekiti state but the
realities on the ground suggest that it is not yet Uhuru for the thieving
Electoral body and its master, PDP. The totally irredeemable, confused and
mortally corrupt INEC may be thinking that the deed is done and that it is
only a matter of time and the people of Ekiti and Nigeria will return to
business as usual. Ah!!! Please let the robbers put on their thinking
caps: This is the final bus-stop for the rigging machine.
When Oni was thrown out by the Appeal Court we told the world that, he
being a beneficiary of a stolen mandate for two years should not take part
in the Re-run to serve as a lesson to future riggers. We raised an alarm
that impunity is fast becoming an acceptable behaviour in Nigeria and that
we must have the courage and the political will to do away with it for the
sake of our children. We reminded the powers that be that if offenders are
not quickly punished the people’s hearts are schemed to continue to do
wrong. We said that the Re-run was totally preposterous and uncalled for
since Dr Fayemi had twelve thousand votes ahead of Oni after sorting out
the invalid votes. We saw it coming and we alerted the world that the
tension, crisis, and bad blood the Re-run would generate may create
problems for Nigeria . Knowing that PDP has never lost any Re-run in
Nigeria since the discredited 2007 elections, we knew that Ekiti Re-run is
going to be a do or die affair for a party that is bent on destroying Nigeria .
On the day of the Re-run in Ekiti the Action Congress informed the world
and Nigeria that PDP thugs invaded collation centre at Ido Osi and made
away with the ballot boxes working in tandem with corrupt and bribed INEC
officials. Consequently, the collation was done at the Police station
which was unacceptable to AC.
The REC of Ekiti State Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo collaborated AC position on Ido
Osi when she said, “In accordance with the rule of law, the on going
election in Ekiti state was supposed to be the election that will enhance
the image of INEC, electoral process in our dear country Nigeria and the
whole Black race. Unfortunately, circumstances changed in the middle of
the process, therefore my conscience as a Christian cannot allow me to
further participate in the process” Now what did she see that informed
her decision to say this? Why did she return to conclude the process she
abandoned in the middle? Who persuaded her not to act according to the
dictates of her conscience? Who intimidated her to succumb to PDP rigging
machines? Why did she announce the result she had rejected earlier on?
What went wrong? Where did the PDP get near 16,000 votes in Ido Osi?
The true picture of what went wrong in Ekiti state is becoming clearer now
with the police Investigations of how 200 INEC officials got 250million
naira to deliver Ekiti state at all cost to PDP. Now do you know how many
people who died in Ekiti State on April 25 2009 because of this
criminality and brigandage? Do we know the negative cost of this bribery
scandal to our so-called re-branding project? Do we know that this endless
crisis would have been avoided if INEC did not compromise? We hear that 31
INEC officials who are currently being interrogated by the police over the
scandal have protested that 200 officials and not 31 were deeply involved
in the scandal.
After concluding the Oye Ekiti Re-run in two wards, did anybody complain?
Nobody complained because it was a free and fair election. We are
complaining because Ido Osi was not free and fair. It was manipulated to
work in a particular direction and the fraud cannot stand. What happened
in Ekiti State in terms of the sordid preparations, anxieties, fears,
rumours, accusations and counter accusations, the characters, the bribe
scandal, manipulations and the gun-point democracy is only a foretaste of
what 2011 will be like and we need to take proactive measures. Our
so-called Electoral Reforms will be meaningless if we do not start it with
Ekiti state. Our much touted electoral reforms will be rendered nugatory
if we fail to fish out electoral criminals and punish them accordingly.
The world will not take us serious if we continue to reward political
offenders with exalted offices in Nigeria and this where the Judiciary
comes in.
From all indications, past records, experiences, antecedents, and history,
it seems to us that it is only the judiciary, as it were that can
discipline PDP and its bands of votes’ robbers. All the Re-run elections
were stolen by PDP in Kogi, Bayelsa, Cross River , Sokoto, Adamawa and now
Ekiti State . In Edo , Ondo and Rivers the courts saved the situation and
restored sanity. The judiciary can redress the injustice in the land. The
judiciary can jail political offenders and election riggers in Nigeria .
The judiciary can continue to restore confidence and sanity in our
electoral process through solid affirmative actions. The judiciary can
stop PDP from endangering Nigeria . We have seen the judiciary did it
before and we know they can do it again. The judiciary can investigate
what happened in Ekiti State and restore hope. Yes, the Judiciary can.
JOE IGBOKWE
AC PUBLICITY SECRETARY
LAGOS STATE
