[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n a syndicated publication in several newspapers and prime-time news-reports in the electronic media, a group known as the Public Interest Lawyers League, accused the Department of State Security (DSS) of intimidating, coercing and detaining vital witnesses of the Rivers State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at Abuja.
Earlier, the same group of lawyers had accused the DSS of harassing the Akwa-Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Austin Okojie so that he will acquiesce in the execution of an alleged plot to deny the PDP the governorship seat in the state. Of course, not to be left out in this DSS-bashing game is a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives from Rivers State under the auspices of Rivers State Caucus, National Assembly, led by Senator George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers South-East Senatorial District), who claim that the secret service is being used to arm-twist the hands of the electoral tribunal hearing the petition against Governor Nyesom Wike.
A single thread that runs through their protests is the unsubstantiated claim that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has elicited the services of the DSS as a manipulative and arm-twisting tool to reclaim the governorship seats from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states.
In a press statement signed by Abdul Mahmud and Mathew Jibril, President and Executive Director respectively, the Public Interest Lawyers criticized the DSS over what it described as “certain hideous occurrences, outside of the courtroom, that portend clear and present danger to the ends of justice in the election dispute”.
Similarly, the group claims that the allegations against Okojie “were inappropriate and the APC had no right to conclude that the man’s actions (Okojie) were criminal without any proven evidence”. Given these protestations, the pertinent question remains: Are these protests being driven by political considerations or genuine concerns for the promotion of justice in election matters?
It would appear that the protestations from these groups with regard to the activities of the DSS in election matters border not only on ignorance but on the need to ensure that INEC officials and PDP members accused of the promotion or commission of violent crimes during the governorship elections in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers States are not tried and punished.
These critics of DSS activities do not seem to appreciate the fact that the same activities by INEC officials could lead to two different outcomes – the one, electoral; and the other, criminal. For instance, the non-release of election result sheets by a resident electoral commissioner to the polling centres and booths as required by the electoral law could lead to the distorted outcome of the result of an election, as well as the maiming and killing of voters arising from the violent disruption of election proceedings. In this circumstance, are the police or the DSS expected to keep hands at akimbo and allow injustice to prevail?
Now, it must be mischievously absurd to suggest that the investigation of a resident electoral commissioner whose activities wittingly or unwittingly led to the death of innocent voters on Election Day is tantamount to the police or the DSS interfering in an electoral matter before an election tribunal or the courts.
The truth of the matter is that while election tribunals and the courts are meant to redress distorted election results arising from the manipulation of an election process – rigging, the police and the DSS are required by law to investigate, arrest and prosecute all those, including INEC officials, whose actions engendered crises and violent crimes in the electoral process.
And there is no law that I know in this country or elsewhere in the world which says that election tribunals and security agencies cannot carry out their different constitutional responsibilities in election matters, simultaneously.
From the benefit of the appraisals just made above regarding the different outcomes – electoral and criminal – that could manifest, for instance, from the single action of a resident electoral commissioner, it becomes clear that almost all the groups or interests using the media to demonize the DSS and its operatives over the election matters in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states are simply crying wolf where there is none.
In the light of what we know about the killings on the day of the governorship election in Akwa-Ibom State allegedly arising from the actions or inactions of the resident electoral commissioner, what do we make of the ranting of the Public Interest Lawyers League that the DSS has been unduly harassing Okojie because of “the interest of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Akwa-Ibom’s natural resources”?
Similarly, in the light of the reported widespread violent crimes and killings that graced the Rivers State governorship election, can any rational mind take seriously the moronic insinuations by the Rivers State Caucus, National Assembly, led by Senator Sekibo that “they have witnessed the modus operandi of the DSS and have come to the conclusion that what’s happening can be best described as dictatorship in a democratic regime”?
No matter what anybody might like to say to the contrary, the Public Interest Lawyers League and the Rivers State Caucus, National Assembly, among others, are just the public arrow-head of the hierarchy of the corrupt and discredited past PDP henchmen in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states.
Their strategy is to cry foul and sound alarmist in order to embarrass the Buhari Presidency in the hope of getting it to interfere and obstruct the DSS from carrying out its constitutional duty to Nigeria regarding the atrocities that were committed by INEC officials, – high and low – in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states during the 2015 general elections that led to the death of innocent voters.
The members of these groups are no democrats interested in protecting the peoples’ mandate. They are simply the fronts for PDP politicians in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states interested only in protecting their anticipated loot and underserved privileges they hope to reap and enjoy over the next four years if the PDP governments of Emmanuel Udom and Nyesom Wike are given the oxygen of life by the election tribunals.
Nigerians must, therefore, resist these characters masquerading as public do-gooders for the peoples of Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states by extending their undiluted support to the DSS in its crackdown and investigation of Okojie and Mrs. Gesila Khan, the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, with regard to their activities during the 2015 general elections that reportedly led to the death of innocent voters.
After all, there is nothing special about INEC officials to warrant their being treated with kid gloves or as persons above the laws of Nigeria. The DSS must, therefore, continue its investigation of the activities of INEC officials in Akwa-Ibom and Rivers states, whether or not they are witnesses in the petitions filed at the election tribunals.
There is no known law in Nigeria, including the Electoral Act that precludes the DSS from doing its work because suspects in the cases its operatives are handling are witnesses in matters before election tribunals and the courts.
- Nkemjika, is Co-author of “Oil Exploration in Northern Nigeria: Problems and Prospects”.
