Date Published: 05/15/09

Sir,

Gov Orji on Ekiti Elections: I thought as much

When I read in the media that Governor Theodore Orji of Abia was quoted as saying the last re-run Ekiti governorship election was free and fair and that all concerned should take it as that, I knew the hard-working governor must have been quoted out of context. Thanks to the clarification which he promptly gave to confirm this belief. Invariably what he meant was that the election as conducted should be accepted to avoid further violence and that the aggrieved should go to court to prove otherwise; just as he did in his own case.

There was no way Gov Orji who toiled so much to retain his mandate would have aligned himself to a controversial election; an election that the President who belongs to the ruling party is now having a second thought hence he set up a panel to investigate the violence and the allegation of bribery scandal involved in the conducted election. We all know what that means. If either the bribery or violence is proved, the election exercise becomes void, and there is no way both could be cleared.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lai Mohammed should be cautioned by progressive minds for being petty in his Press Statement where he childishly brought in the alleged matter of Okija shrine that was one of the grounds Governor Orji’s opponent (Chief Ugochukwu) had predicated his request that Orji should not remain as the elected governor. Lai Mohammed had sarcastically brought (a mundane matter that had already been debunked) into a serious discourse as the Ekiti governorship election matter.

The Press definitely misquoted Orji who neither belongs to PDP nor AC and who had fought to retain his mandate in a very clear way, through the Court of Appeal.

Ndubuisi Nwaorah,

245 Zik Avenue,

Awka, Anambra State.

nnwaorah@yahoo.com