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  • Lagos APC warms up for membership registration

    Lagos APC warms up for membership registration

    Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) has unfolded plans for the membership registration at the wards.

    The Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Abiodun Sunmola, said the first phase of the registration at the ward level will last for five days, adding that subsequent registration of members will take place at the state secretariat of the party.

    He said: “ The registration of the authentic party members will take place at the ward meetings. After the five days, the registration venue will shift to the party headquarter. I urge you to mobilise our members for the exercise”.

    Sunmola spoke at the recent meeting of the Lagos East APC stakeholders’ meeting held at the Somolu Local Government Secretariat. Hailing the party leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for his political shuttles across the six geo-political zones, in a bid to enlarge the APC’s coast, he urged the members not to let him down at the grassroots.

    Sunmola, who is the Lagos East leader, said: “As Asiwaju is working at the top, let us forge unity at the grassroots”.

    Three items were on the agenda at the meeting-the personality rift among the party elders, agitation for governorship by the East District and membership registration. Shortly before the meeting commenced, a member of the Publicity Committee, Mr. Tunde Temionu, said: We are not doing rally. We are not introducing anybody as candidates. We are here for the stakeholders’ meeting”. However, it was a carnival-like meeting.

    The mood at the gathering reflected the crisis among the party leaders. Prominent chieftains, including Otunba Busura Alebiosu, former Deputy Governor Abiodun Ogunleye, former Secretary to Government Olorunfunmi Basorun and former Speakers of House of Assembly, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora and Joko Pelumi, were absent.

    The Lagos APC Vice Chairman, Alhaji Akanni Seriki-Bamu, also urged the gathering to ponder on the suspicion in the Publicity Committee between Temionu and Hon. Tunde Braimoh. Urging Sunmola to unite he fold, he advised him to shun bad advisers, who wanted to mislead the leadership.

    Party members protested their neglect by the some big wigs in elective and appointive positions. For example, they hailed Senator Gbenga Ashafa, former Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Commissioner Prince Rotimi Agunsoye, his successor, Hon. Ademorin Kuye, Bariga Council Chairman Hakeem Sulaimon-Oris, Mrs. Yetunde Arobieke, and Education Commissioner Mrs. Funmilayo Oladunjoye, when they stormed the venue. But they jeered at other chieftains, claiming that they had neglected what they described as “personal infrastructure”. Ashafa said that “there is still time to correct the mistake”.

    Party chieftains at the meeting included House of Assembly Speaker Yemi Ikuforiji, Primate Charles Odugbesi, former Housing Commissioner Dele Onabokun, his Special Duties counterpart, Dr. Tola Kasali, House of Assembly member Hon. Segun Olulade, former legislator Hon. Goriola Agbara, former Rural Development Commissioner Hon. Lanre Balogun, House of Assembly Commission Chairman Chief Wale Mogaji, Bayo Balogun, Mrs. Folake Sokunbi, Hon. Muyiwa Adedeji, Hon. Bayo Osinowo, Hon. Suntai Agunbiade, Denga Anifowose, Chief Oyedele, Pa S.B. Banire, Hon. Tobun, Bode Alausa, Rotimi Abiru, Biodun Aigbe, Prince Busayo Adebayo, Alabi Macfoy, Hon. Folami, Alhaja Okulaja, and Hakeem Oso.

    Ashafa, who was the first to speak, urged members to cultivate the symbol of the party, the broom, which signifies unity. ‘Don’t allow cracks on the wall. 2015 will not be easy. We need to cooperate together. Our leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is working. We should support him. Let us wake up every morning and pray for Asiwaju. He is leading us aright. Those of us in Abuja will also not let you down.

    Ikuforiji, who spoke next, said that the APC has been planted, urging the party followers to spread the political gospel at the grassroots.”It is being nurtured. We will get to our destination”, he added. The Speaker also advised the leaders in the district to resolve their differences and learn to forgive. He hailed Tinubu for his leadership role in the progressive camp, saying that the political risks he had taken in the past had paid off as it heralded the victory of the progressives in the Southwest. The Speaker said that APC will rule at the centre, urging the members to guide their loins. Peeping into 2015, Ikuforiji said: “In this coming dispensation, the East Senatorial District must produce the next APC governor of Lagos State.

    A party leader from Ibeju-Lekki area, Dr. Kasali, spoke on unity, admonishing the district to operate in an atmosphere of trust and oneness. “If we people of the East want to produce the next APC governor, we must unite. The units of operation are the wards, local governments and senatorial districts. Let all our members return to their wards to forge unity”, he advised.

    The former commissioner for Health also urged those in government to help party members who voted for them at the polls. “People are in politics because of what they want to be and what they want to eat. Only few people can get to elective and appointive positions, but all of us should be able to get what to eat. Let the elect4d people look back. Let them remember those who worked for their success at the polls. Let no councillor limit his gestures to his personal group. Let our leaders remember all party members”, he added.

    Seriki-Bamu, who hit the nail on the head, lamented that some aides and associates are giving wrong advice to the zonal leader, Sunmola, to mislead him and create confusion in the district. “Don’t gove bad advice to our leader, Pa Sunmola. When we decide anything in our meeting, don’t twist. You personal assistants should not give information on behalf of our leader, unless you are instructed. There is still problem in the East District and the onus is on Pa Sunmola to resolve it. He should muster the strength to resolve the crisis”.

    Seriki-Bamu clarified that there is no friction between the two leaders, Alebiosu and Sunmola. “We were at an event recently and the governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, myself and Bayo Osinowo-Pepper were with Pa Alebiosu there. Aregbesola spoke on the importance of the unity. He said the comrade-capitalist, that is Alebiosu, is a good leader and he emphasised that there should be no strife and rancour. But some people are trying to create problem for us. As the leader of the East District, Pa Sunmola should make sure that the district remains one”, he added.

    Another leader, Pa Banire, urged the members to learn from the blind and cripple, who depend on mutual assistance to survive. “We need unity in this district. We need ourselves to politically survive. The blind needs the eyes of the cripple to see. The cripple needs the legs of the blind to walk”, he said.

  • Anambra poll: An opportunity missed

    Anambra poll: An opportunity missed

    The forces malevolently interested in the November 16 Anambra governorship poll were much stronger than the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could withstand or manage. No matter what INEC did, the election was bound to fail; for the stakes in that poll were so high that even if the electoral body had mustered enough administrative acumen and integrity to superintend the election, the political dynamics in both the state and the country had already spawned too many sinister factors capable of undermining the poll.

    Much attention has been paid to INEC’s failings in that election as an explanation for the almost comprehensive failure of the governorship poll. Because of this failure, the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, has himself been described as a failure. In addition, many have called for the cancellation of the poll since it could not be guaranteed that the pollution and manipulation noticed in some polling areas had not affected the entire process. Professor Jega himself acknowledged that in some parts of the state, his men sabotaged the election. He was thoroughly disappointed, he said, that in spite of all the preparations for that poll, the election still miscarried badly. And though he didn’t quite say it, it appeared that the sabotage he talked about was aimed at the feisty All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chris Ngige.

    The Anambra poll miscarried for two main reasons. But before considering the reasons, it is important to make one or two observations about the election. First, I think it was unwise of Professor Jega to have drafted so many top level INEC staff to supervise the poll, and also encourage the overwhelming policing of the same poll. By taking these extraordinary steps in the hope that he would deliver a near perfect election, he robbed himself and his commission of the opportunity to know how they would have performed were the 2015 polls to be held all over the country on November 16. In 2015, it is evident that neither the commission nor the security agencies would have the benefit of the number and stature of the officials deployed in Anambra for the inconclusive governorship poll of two Saturdays ago. The poll should have been used as a dress rehearsal for the 2015 polls. Second, by now Professor Jega and the frustrated electorate will have realised that it takes more than an INEC chairman’s well-meaning disposition and the deployment of overwhelming force to deliver a free and fair election.

    The failed Anambra poll can be explained in two ways. First is the simple fact that the Jonathan presidency has no interest whatsoever in ensuring a free and fair poll, notwithstanding its repeated homilies on the sanctity of the electoral process. Judging from the spectral silence of the presidency on the obvious and deliberate sabotage of the poll, and the effusive and exuberant praise of the same poll by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was clear that from the perspective of the Jonathan presidency, the goal of the election was to defeat Dr Ngige, not to ensure fair poll or give victory to the PDP candidate. The obsession against Dr Ngige is in turn informed by the overall strategic interest of the ruling party to checkmate the rising profile of the APC and stall, if not completely weaken, the opposition’s increasingly shrill and critical voice. This explains why the PDP was eager to endorse the misshapen poll and give the impression of being detached from crass partisanship, though its candidate lost in questionable circumstances.

    As part of this strategy of weakening, stalling or reversing the power of the APC, the PDP will next year attempt to take at least one state from the APC in the Osun and Ekiti elections and ride that momentum towards the 2015 polls. Two main factors underscore the strategy against the APC. One is the fact that Dr Jonathan himself lacks the intrinsic depth and vision to remake the country as a virile, progressive and pacesetting nation. Two is the fact that deliberately or accidentally, Dr Jonathan has managed to assemble a group of Machiavellian advisers and close aides who have gross loathing for principles. They are adept at reading the lips of the president and sabotaging every law and constitutional provision militating against the president’s re-election. Therefore, between Dr Jonathan’s surrender to devious politics and the energetic enthusiasm of his aides to foment trouble, everything, including the laws and constitution, not to talk of elections in particular, is fair game for subversion.

    The second reason the Anambra poll miscarried is the connivance of the state’s elite. No one denies the atrocious manipulations that undermined the integrity of the poll. But to remedy these atrocities, INEC plans a supplementary election slated for the end of this month. While there are calls for total cancellation of the poll from among a not-so-substantial number of Anambrarians and an overwhelming number of non-Anambrarians, the state’s elite have indicated the poll is not so irredeemable that a supplementary poll cannot correct. In media comments and television discussions, as well as jurisprudential expositions, the said elite have struggled to justify the poll and denounce the APC, its candidate, and any other person bold enough to dismiss the election as a sham. It is not surprising that such connivance offers endorsement for the electoral chicanery of two Saturdays ago and also provides adequate grounding and philosophical underpinning for the subversion of the electoral process.

    One of those philosophical underpinnings was the incredulous argument that Dr Ngige represented the face of the Southwest’s expansionist agenda. The state’s ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), was the only surviving Igbo party that must not be humiliated, they said. It no longer mattered that APC’s Dr Ngige was their son, or that he had ruled the state meritoriously and can probably do much better than his rivals, or that his competence could not be doubted at all. The unabashed suggestion that Dr Ngige represented outsiders harked back to the Yoruba/Igbo rivalry of the 1950s and 1960s, and gave the impression that little progress had been made in Southwest/Southeast relationships. To these conniving analysts and amateur philosophers, it does not matter how the APGA candidate wins.

    But such dangerous reasoning carries equally dangerous drawbacks. It shows that the Southeast has learnt nothing, forgotten nothing, and has all along been an impassive observer of the changing dynamics of Nigerian politics and geopolitics. Even though Dr Ngige’s candidature was the best opportunity for the Southwest to build a credible and durable bridge to the Southeast, it was even a much better opportunity for the Southeast to expand its reach nationally and also break the implacable iron curtain that has seemed to divide the Southwest and the Southeast. For a region desirous of winning the presidency in the years ahead, it is strange that the lessons of MKO Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential election are lost on them.

    It is also surprising that they fail to understand that while the Southwest intelligently preferred Olu Falae in the 1999 presidential election, Olusegun Obasanjo enjoyed the better crossover appeal which propelled him into Aso Villa. More crucially, it must be understood that the seeming consensus that appeared to produce a Yoruba president in 1999 could not be divorced from the 1993 presidential election annulment. Such a consensus is unlikely to be built again, and each party and ethnic group will have to explore sensible and multipronged strategies to win the presidency.

    If the partial results already sanctioned by INEC are taken into cognisance, and given the way they are skewed against the APC candidate, it is hard to see Dr Ngige winning. If he loses, it will not be because he failed to run a credible and efficient campaign, or because the electorate didn’t vote for him. It will be because he ran against a manipulative and amoral federal government, an unscrupulous Governor Peter Obi who pays only lip service to democracy, a short-sighted and parochial elite anxious to protect imaginary boundaries, and an unconscionable public who can’t seem to understand the fuss over an unfair electoral process or the principle of fighting for and defending truth and justice.

    It is also quite remarkable that some of those who denounce the APC in the Anambra election and turn a blind eye to the corruption that accompanied it come from the Southwest. Their reasons are totally unrelated to the noxious details of the electoral manipulations observed in the Anambra poll by everyone. Indeed, the unusual Southwest support for injustice is merely a reflection of the divisions that have now become integral to Southwest politics, one in which everyone defines progressivism according to his taste and embraces it according to his whim. The bitter political struggle in the Southwest, which always spills over to other parts of the country, will continue for some time to come, for it has become burdensome and discomfiting for those who had associated with Obafemi Awolowo in the First and Second Republics, and long ago passed themselves off as progressives, to mollify the pangs and reproof of conscience triggered by their betrayal of democratic principles.

    Those who suggest that the Anambra debacle presages a catastrophic 2015 are right. The Anambra poll failed because there are fewer people today in the country with the character and principles that conduce to good electoral behaviour. Anambra has probably sealed its fate. But the buck-passers of INEC, the vicious and amoral presidency of Dr Jonathan, and the shallow and sentimental analysts crawling all over Nigeria with spurious logic will guarantee that this long-suffering country, not just Anambra, inexorably moves closer to meeting its fate in two years’ time.

  • APC rejects supplementary election

    APC rejects supplementary election

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) last night rejected the planned supplementary election in Anambra State next Saturday.

    “We will not be a party to what is obviously a travesty of election by a self-discredited and conniving electoral umpire,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    It expressed “absolute shock and incredulity” that INEC could even talk of organising a supplementary election, despite the weight of credible evidence presented by the party as well as election monitors/observers that what transpired on November 16 was nothing but a “sham.”

    The party said: ”This announcement has confirmed our worst fears that INEC is working in cahoots with the PDP and the presidency to ensure that no election ever counts in Nigeria.

    “The INEC Chairman himself was the first to admit that a senior official of the commission compromised the election in one local government in Anambra.

    “We on our own part were able to establish that materials meant for several LGs that were the strongholds of our candidate were diverted; that out of the about 1.7 million registered voters in Anambra, only a little over 400,000 were accredited to vote; and that the voters’ register was apparently tampered with to remove many names and disenfranchise thousands of voters.

    ‘’Yet, the same electoral body that admitted that the election was compromised has turned around to validate it by its decision to organise supplementary election instead of cancelling the parody of election and holding a fresh one. This is a sad day indeed.’’

    The party said it is now obvious that Nigerians “cannot count on INEC to organise a free, fair and credible election anywhere in the country, hence Nigerians must now take their fate in their own hands to ensure that the principle of one man, one vote is sacrosanct.”

  • Anambra supplementary poll holds Nov 30 – Jega

    Anambra supplementary poll holds Nov 30 – Jega

    Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega Saturday announced November 30, 2013 for Anambra supplementary election.

    Jega, who confirmed that the Returning Officer declared the poll inconclusive admitted that the election “was not the best by the commission.”

    He regrets irregularities encountered during the exercise.

  • Why Anambra poll should be cancelled, by APC

    Why Anambra poll should be cancelled, by APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday gave 16 reasons why last Saturday’s Anambra governorship poll should be cancelled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The party insisted that the poll was not only marred by irregularities, it was conducted without compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

    It advised INEC to pull the brakes on the proposed Supplementary Election — in line with the powers vested on it by the Electoral Act.

    The APC made the demands in a November 18, 2013 letter to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

    The party said since no candidate has been declared as the winner of the poll, INEC can cancel it.

    The letter was released to the public at a briefing addressed by the APC National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

    Akande addressed the press alongside the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Tijjani Tumsa; the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; the National Treasurer, Hajiya Sadia Umar Farouk;

    Deputy National Organising Secretary, Senator Lawal Shuaibu and the Deputy National Secretary, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

    The party listed other reasons for the cancellation of the poll as follows:

    •tainted Voters’ Register. The register used for the poll was different from the ones issued to parties;

    •INEC claimed 1,763,751 were registered voters, only 451, 826 voters could find their names;

    •failure to deploy election officials in sufficient numbers;

    •election materials were not distributed in a timely manner,

    •recruitment of election officials at the election venue and deployment without any form of training,

    •INEC’s failure to respond to operational challenges on time;

    •INEC’s admission of irregularities in 16 local government areas, 1,380 polling units with 600,000 voters affected;

    •disenfranchisement of many voters;

    •results were brought without being publicly announced by the local government area collation officers;

    •disappearance of Ms. Seyi Oguntuwase with all the Result Sheets;

    •the integrity of the announced results cannot be vouchsafed;

    •poor rating of the collation process by the Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room;

    •INEC official working in concert with some outside influence compromised the election in Idemili North; and

    •Anambra REC had undisguised and deep-seated bias against the defunct ACN and APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige.

    The APC seven-page letter reads in part: “We note that your commission has announced plans to conduct ‘Supplementary Election’ in 201 Polling Units in 16 Local Government Areas of Anambra State. As at date, the names of the polling areas affected is yet to be released.

    “We respectfully demand that the commission discontinue all arrangements for the conduct of the said ‘Supplementary Election’. We also demand that no candidate in the said election should be returned as the winner pending the conduct of fresh election.

    “Our demand is predicated on the serious irregularities and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended which characterised the conduct of the said election.

    “To proceed with the election as proposed by your commission will amount to a gruesome assault on the right of the people of Anambra State to elect a governor of their choice and a legitimising of a grave travesty of the electoral process as witnessed during the November 16, 2013 Governorship Election.”

    The party insisted that INEC was not constrained by the Electoral Act in canceling the governorship poll.

    APC added: “Having regard to the foregoing, it is inevitable that the election is fundamentally flawed and cannot be redeemed by the proposed ‘Supplementary Election’.

    “In an electoral process, a Ward or Local Government Collation Officer who stands in the same position as State Collation/Returning Officer can cancel or reject results submitted to him at ward or local government level where the result is tainted with vice or irregularities. The Commission, is therefore, duly empowered to reject the purported results as announced. It is instructive that it is the prior cancellation of results by the Commission that has led to the affected areas being included in the areas for which the “Supplementary Election” is to be held.”

    “Therefore, the assertion by your Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Idowu as reported in the Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, 19th November, 2013 to the effect that “By law, those results are now beyond the purview of INEC to invalidate. Only the courts have that power now to do so… All that the Commission can do is to conduct a supplementary election so that the CRO can make a return” is erroneous and misconceived, given that a return is yet to be made. A correct reading of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended is to the effect that your Commission cannot reverse itself where a candidate in the election has been returned as a winner. This has not been done. Indeed, your commission had on Monday, 18th November, 2013 declared the election as “inconclusive”.

    “We respectfully demand that the proposed ‘Supplementary Election’ be discontinued and the entire election cancelled pursuant to the powers vested in the Commission by the Electoral Act as amended.

    “We further demand that your commission conducts fresh election to enable people of Anambra State elect a governor of their choice devoid of manifest, widespread and substantial irregularities

    “In securing the integrity of such fresh election, we demand that the current Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, be transferred out of Anambra State and a new Resident Electoral Commissioner be appointed to head Anambra State INEC and superintend such fresh election.

    “We also demand that the arrest and immediate prosecution of Prof. Onukaogu and members of his syndicate involved in the electoral fraud that has brought odium and ridicule to Nigerians in the eyes of the world.

    “These are the ways to rebuild public confidence in your Commission and restore the integrity of the electoral process.”

    The party went into the details of how the poll process was flawed.

    The letter added in part: “Fundamentally, the integrity of an election is premised on an unassailable Voters’ Register. The Voters’ Register used for the election was tainted with vice, to the effect that many voters were disenfranchised across most Local Government Areas (LGAs0 of Anambra state, particularly in the stronghold of our candidate. Further, the said voters register in the LGAs controlled by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), our major opponent, were padded with minors and multiple registrants, contrary to the assurances given by the National Chairman and Director of ICT Department, Mr. Nwafor at the Stakeholders’ Meeting held at Awka on the 13th November, 2013. Further, the late issuance of the final voters’ register to the political parties on the 13th November, 2013 – barely 2 (two) days to the all-important election was calculated to aid the irregularities that we now complain about.

    “While our initial preliminary observations had identified 4 (four) LGAs where the election was seriously flawed, the Commission not only admitted that these irregularities indeed occurred but widened the scope of the areas where the electoral malpractices and irregularities occurred to 16 (sixteen) LGAs and 210 Polling Units 9PUS0 with 113, 113 registered voters, thereby affecting a substantial part of the constituency.

    “Our reports from our field agents had catalogued about 1,380 (PUs) of about 600,000 voters with one form of irregularity or the other ranging from lack of result sheets before voting and non-recording or announcement of results by Presiding Officers on the instruction of the Supervisory Presiding Officers(SPOs) and Electoral Officers(EOs).

    “Though you had contended that only the electorate in Obosi, Idemili North LGA was disenfranchised, it is now apparent that these irregularities were more widespread than earlier envisaged by you.

    “To worsen matters, the commission illegally proceeded to conduct another election at Obosi on a Sunday, notwithstanding the absence of a Legal Notice to the political parties and the voters in the constituency.

    “The action of the commission was also an affront to the religious sensibilities of the predominantly Christian population in the constituency. This led to the disenfranchisement of most voters, thereby casting a further slur on the integrity of the process.”

  • Ngige: how poll was rigged

    Ngige: how poll was rigged

    INEC to police: probe Anambra electoral officers

    Some lurid details of the fraud in last Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election were laid bare yesterday.

    One of the major actors in the election, which was widely condemned as “flawed” and “shameful”, described the election as a “disaster”.

    Dr. Chris Ngige, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, said: “We have on tape a policeman thumb printing for APGA and INEC officials running away with election materials.”

    Ngige was angry as he spoke at a press conference in Awka, the state capital. He said: “This INEC used students instead of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to starve us of election materials. All the electoral officers were all compromised, like the one in Idemili North who deliberately acted on the orders of INEC and APGA.

    “Students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka here were used as poll clerks just to find fault in APC and to favour their lecturer, Dr. Nkem Okeke, who ran as deputy to the APGA candidate in the election.

    “Much more astonishing is that they wore NYSC uniforms because of the election and when they are taught how to perfect fraud, somebody will tell Nigerians that this country will be good. This is the disposition of the personnel that came to work in the election.”

    Ngige urged INEC chairman Jega to call for the list of the Adhoc staff who worked during the election. “I do not want anybody to favour me or my party APC. Apart from the people from Calabar, every other person that worked during the election had affiliation with APGA,” Ngige alleged.

    Ngige said APC members had computed that over 600,000 people were denied their voting rights, adding that the 210 units being allocated by INEC to them for the “so-called” supplementary election were not enough.

    He added that the 16 local government areas being claimed by INEC as places where elections were cancelled was not true. APC, he said, knows that election did not take place in 20 local government areas.

    Ngige said: “INEC on Sunday came up with what it called supplementary election. The votes allocated to APC during the so-called election on Sunday were fake because we did not participate.

    “Our stand is clear. The election was fraught with intimidation, with thuggery, with disenfranchisement of our voters and total partisanship by the electoral body.”

    He was disappointed in the system.

    Said Ngige: “If it were a bazaar, it would have been a different thing and APC would have prepared for it, but we were told by INEC and the President of this country, Goodluck Jonathan, that it would be free, fair and credible. But it was not the case.

    “Because they told us that they were ready for the election, that was why we conformed to it because we thought that those errors and mistakes had been corrected in the voter register, without knowing that it was a deceit.”

    In his view, “the election was a systematic way to deal with the opposition parties in this state, especially APC, and the same thing happened in 2011 during my senatorial election.”

    He blamed it all on Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, who accused of adopting “the same tricks he used in 2011 by adopting his APGA system to dislodge Ngige and APC.” “To my mind, the election was flawed ab-initio,” Ngige said.

    He added: “I am a statesman in this country. I have never gone to INEC to seek for favour. For Jega who everybody regards as a man of honour and integrity to sit back and allow his office to be messed up by those without honour, I’m really amased.

    “Jega is an activist like myself and I do not support injustice. I’m injured and pained that this kind of atrocity is happening in his time and I also have difficulty in absolving him. What has happened in Anambra State is a disaster.

    “I am sad for my country. I have lost hope in the entire process. People’s hopes are being dashed. I’m not desperate to become a governor. I have been there before now. The people of the state have lost hope in INEC,” Ngige said.

  • APC to INEC: you don’t need court order to cancel tainted poll

    APC to INEC: you don’t need court order to cancel tainted poll

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the stand of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that only the courts can cancel last Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State, in which about 1.3 million of the 1.7 million registered voters voted.

    In a statement in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party reminded INEC that it did not wait for a court order to cancel the National Assembly elections in 2011, when it was obvious that many voters across the country could not vote due to the late arrival or non-delivery of voting materials.

    ‘’In announcing the cancellation of the National Assembly election in 2011, INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega said, among others, that it was to ‘maintain the integrity of the elections and retain effective overall control of the process’,’’ it said.

    APC said the situation in Anambra last Saturday was even more serious because, in addition to the fact that voting materials were either late or not delivered at all, most voters were disenfranchised by an INEC official who apparently tampered with the 2011 Voters’ Register for the state.

    ‘’Therefore, there are more compelling reasons now to cancel the Anambra governorship election than what led to the cancellation and rescheduling of the National Assembly election in 2011, unless of course INEC is still acting out the script handed to it for the ill-fated election,’’ the party said.

    It also said since the integrity of the 2011 Voters’ Register had been compromised by tampering, that register can no longer be relied upon by INEC to organise any election in Nigeria.

    ‘’The emerging allegations are very serious. First, the Voters’ Register for Anambra has been allegedly tampered with by an INEC official to disenfranchise a huge number of voters, to such an extent that only 451,826 voters were accredited out of the 1,763,751 registered voters in Anambra State.

    ‘’Secondly, the disenfranchisement started from the data capturing stage, when the machine was apparently manipulated not to capture those whose names start with ‘O’ or ‘U’, and that is a whole lot of people. Against this background, it is obvious to all fair-minded people, not the rabidly partisan PDP, that INEC ‘s computer data-base must have been fraudulently, irreparably and totally adulterated, such that no credible Voters’ Register can anymore be produced from the 2011 voters’ registration data.

    ‘’That is why we are not just calling for the cancellation of the Anambra governorship election, but also saying that even a fresh election cannot and must not be conducted on the basis of the 2011 Voters’ Register. Unless Nigeria embarks on another voters’ registration exercise, it is doubtful if INEC has the ability to ameliorate the damage already done to 2011 registration information by its corrupt and inept officials.

    ‘’That is why we are calling on Prof. Jega not to withhold the name of the main saboteur in Saturday’s poll, and to also investigate the level to which the Voters’ Register has been compromised, fish out all those involved, find out who their sponsors are and make all of them to face justice,’’ APC said.

    Meanwhile, the party has described as very strange indeed the role of the presidency and the PDP in the debate over the Anambra election.

    ‘’The conventional wisdom is that political parties take their bearing from their candidates on election day. But in the case of the PDP and the Presidency, not only have they abandoned their candidate in the Anambra poll, who himself has derided the election and called for its cancellation, they have also disowned him by going ahead to hail the poll as free and fair.

    ‘’It is now glaring to all that the disgrace that INEC has suffered from the Anambra debacle is because the electoral body is acting out the script written by the Presidency and APGA for the election. The claim by the PDP spokesman that our party is trying to discredit the entire electoral process is as shallow as it is laughable.”

    ‘’Pray, how more can you discredit an election that the organiser itself (INEC) has admitted was sabotaged by its own officials? Is it the APC that revealed the information concerning the role of INEC saboteurs? Did the PDP candidate find his name on the voters’ register used for Saturday’s election? Obviously, things have fallen apart in the contraption called the PDP and the centre can no long hold there,’’ it said.

  • PDP’s diversionary statement on poll, by APC

    PDP’s diversionary statement on poll, by APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra yesterday said the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) half-hearted statement on last Saturday’s poll was diversionary.

    APC’s Interim Publicity Secretary Okelo Madukaife said in a statement: “The comments credited to Olisa Metuh, PDP’s national publicity secretary, that APC knocks the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when it loses is diversionary.

    “In fact, it’s a manifestation of sycophancy to please Metuh’s superiors in the PDP caught in an intricate web of anti-party conduct and undue influence over INEC.

    “The fact that the position of the PDP, as expressed by Metuh, contradicts the one expressed by the PDP candidate, Mr. Tony Nwoye, who has called for the cancellation of the poll, is indicative that the national body may not have fully been behind its candidate.

    “Gladly, Metuh illustrated with Ondo State where his party fielded a candidate, but instead supported the Labour Party candidate, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, through the back door.

    ‘’Without meandering, the principle of PDP support, which short-changes its candidates, is the same for Anambra as it was in Ondo State, and the issue of coming third, fourth, fifth or sixth in a largely discredited poll does not take away the locus standi of a focused party to demand that all voters in Anambra State be allowed to vote in a free and fair election on a clean slate.

    “The needless political point that Metuh and his party – at the national level-wish to score is that only those, who have been awarded an undeserved first and second positions, in an election in which all indices point to failure can speak up on whether people should be allowed to vote or not.

    We disagree!

    “The admission of INEC that its officers have colluded in rigging, the confirmation of observers, local and foreign that the election was a failure and testimonies from the election confirms that the rigging plan, which PDP used to shortchange Ghali Umar Na’Aba in 2003 in favour of an All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate and Ifeanyi Ararume in Imo State in favour of Ohakim, a PPA candidate in Imo State’s 2007 election, may or may not necessarily work for the ‘messed-up’ (in Prof. Attahiru Jega’s words) election in Anambra State.

    “However, while the issue of sincere support by the PDP at the national level to its own candidate in the state remains its internal affair, what is true is that APC stands for the principle of one-man one-vote, which must count, and Anambra indigenes, who are qualified to vote, must be allowed to vote in a clean election.

    “Hence, it remains unacceptable to accommodate a widespread manipulation, using INEC officials, security agents, real and fake, who used every possible vice to blur the future of Anambra youths.

    “It becomes laughable when Metuh opens a new vista to the rigging plan of PDP when it chose to use security agents to arrest election observers in a neighbouring state, only to label them ‘APC thugs’. Yet, no charge is being pressed on the wonderful ‘tag-wearing thugs’, with large number of highly-educated women in their ranks.

    “By toeing this path, Metuh is the one trying to becloud a serious issue of illegitimacy of government to be thrown up in the 2004 to 2018 governorship tenure to naked propaganda, without content.

    “Were it not so, Metuh should have dealt with the INEC-assisted rigging in an Obosi hotel where policemen and soldiers declined to make an arrest; withdrawal of result sheets by INEC officials, which they had ‘mistakenly’ supplied; allowing results to be recorded on rough sheets or cardboard papers; use of fake policemen and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members; arrival of materials in predetermined councils at 2pm incomplete; orchestrated strike by NYSC presiding officers; placement of materials unmanned, among others.”

     

    “We note that silence is better than the statement so far credited to PDP and Metuh even in the interest of his party.

    “Once again, we restate our resolve to rescue their rights to choose their leader and run their state without being controlled.

    “APC urges the indigenes to disregard the mud-slinging from Metuh’s PDP and attend to the report of the manipulation in the 21 councils.”

     

  • Lagos East should produce next governor, says Ikuforiji

    Lagos East should produce next governor, says Ikuforiji

    Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforijihas said that the Lagos East Senatorial District should produce the governor in 2015.

    He said, having produced the three Speakers, who brought honour to the state and party six times, the district is qualified to produce the next governor.

    Ikuforiji observed that there are competent men and women in the district, who can succeed Governor Babatunde Fashola, urging the people to intensify their agitation for power shift.

    The Speaker also reflected on his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), saying that he will triumph over the predicament. He said: “EFCC or not, it is vanity. They will reap vanity. You know me; I will always speak my mind. Because of that, I incur the wrath of some people. God always deliver me and he will continue to deliver me”.

    The Speaker, who is believed to be eyeing the governorship, spoke at the meeting of the Lagos East All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders held at the Somolu Local Government Secretariat last weekend. He however, clarified that he had no specific candidate in mind, stressing that he only echoed the patriotic views of the stakeholders.

    Ikuforiji said: “In this coming dispensation, Lagos East Senatorial District must produce the next APC governor. All our leaders should approve the proposal. I had a dream. The dream is that our leader will support the East District for the slot”.

    The Speaker’s remark has generated much interest and controversy among the APC chieftains. Ikuforiji, the Epe-born politician, has canvassed for power shift from the Central to the East District at a time he is representing Ikeja, West District, in the House of Assembly.

    A chieftain of the APC from the West, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said: “The legislator has found it difficult to champion power shift to the West, where he resides and currently benefits from. How would he want the people of Ikeja and the West to feel? Since he belongs to two districts, he should have allowed others to lead the agitation”.

    Since the Second Republic, power shift has not shaped governorship selection in Lagos. The three districts were only designed for senatorial elections. Although some politicians have canvassed a rotational principle, based on the five divisions-Lagos, Ikeja, Badagry, Epe, and Ikorodu, the political parties have never considered it. Lagos State has become one indivisible zone, based on the deep interactions among the indigenes and settlers.

    The first civilian governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, son of the Oluwo of Lagos, with an ancestral root in Omu-Aran, Kwara State, came from the Central District. For ethnic balancing, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) leader, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo put forward Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo, an Awori, with an ancestral root in Ile-Ife, Osun State, as the running mate. He came from the West. The Lagos Central-born governor lived in Ilupeju, Lagos West.

    In the Third Republic, Sir Michael Otedola of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) was elected governor. He hails from Epe, East Central. Those who wanted to serve as the governor at that time, including Chief Dapo Sarunmi, the late Prof. Femi Agbalajobi and Chief Yomi Edu, also came from Epe. But the two parties-the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and NRC-did not zone it to Epe or East District. In fact, when Sarunmi and Agabalajobi were banned from the race by the military, the Jakande group in the SDP drafted Prince Abiodun Ogunleye from Ikorodu to the race.

    In 1999, when the Afenifere/Alliance for Democracy (AD) leaders endorsed Senator Bola Tinubu for the governorship, they did not bother about whether he is from the West or Central District. Merit was the watchword. The Tinubu family is from the Central, but Senator Tinubu started politics in Ikeja-Agege axis. His successor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), is from the Central, but his origin did not play any role in his emergence as the Action Congress (AC) flag bearer.

    Observers point out that Lagos is a cosmopolitan setting that has thrown up many actors, who are not indigenes of the state. One of the Speakers from the East, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, is from Ijebuland, Ogun State. A handful of state and federal legislators from the district are also not indigenes. There are interactions by marriage. In 2007, when the Ikorodu Division agitated for power shift, a Mushin, West District politician, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, showed up at the rally in Ikorodu, claiming that her paternal grandmother hailed from the division.

    Ikuforiji however, maintained that the agitation for zoning, rotation or power shift is legitimate, urging the people of the East not to relent in their efforts.

    He stressed: “Since 1999, Lagos East has produced the Speakers. The Lagos State House of Assembly has been the best in Nigeria. That means that Lagos East is full of materials. We have capable men and women in the East. The Legislature is the most difficult arm of government. It has been headed by people from the East. It is the turn of the East to produce the governor of Lagos State and it will be so”.

     

     

     

  • Anambra: Story of a bungled poll

    SIR: The recently conducted governorship poll in Anambra State could be likened to the story of a city blessed with an amazing beauty and fragrance but spiritually sick therefore making its descendants to be unsuccessful in their chosen career. As an observer in that election, my take is that the election could not be said to have passed the democratic test although relatively free. It was peaceful but not fair.

    It is imperative to state here that the people of Anambra state conducted themselves in a peaceful and an orderly manner during the election. Brigandage was jettisoned for serenity. No violence. Very peaceful. No uproar. Political thugs were sent into oblivon. Thuggery was caged. Gangsterism was rejected. Anambra people disgraced desperate politicians by not allowing them to have their usual way.

    Let me state unequivocally that the modus oparandi adopted by the electoral umpirewas a ruse. Voting materials were short in the areas where the candidates of the opposition parties – the ll Progressives Congress (APC) , Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were rooted and strong. Only the areas where the candidate of the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) was popular were adequately equipped and serviced with electoral materials.

    What a well concocted planned game! I make bold to aver that the election was scientifically and carefully rigged. The people of Anambra were the winners of the election while INEC officials were the villains. In Idemili North and South local government areas, less than 20% of voting materials were brought to the polling units. Many electoral officials absconded for reasons well known to them. The Professor Attahiru Jega- led INEC was a disappointment. While the people were ready for change and success, INEC remorsefully demonstrated failure.

    It is clear that worse days are ahead for Nigeria. I say without being hypocritical that democracy is in danger in Nigeria. Anambra people were ready for a free and fair election but INEC fumbled. The candidate of PDP, Comrade Tony Nwoye could not vote. His 75 years old father too could not vote. His Uncle, Chukwudi also could not vote. Their names surprisingly disappeared from the voters register.

     

    • Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye,

    Magodo, Lagos.