Observers—local and international— screamed. The media shouted. Almost everybody, except members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was alarmed. If we had taken time out to listen to the plants, the goats, the cows and the chickens in Opobo, Egbema, Ndoni, Ogoni and Okrika, we could have heard them complain too. The rivers from which this great state derives its name must have roared too. But as humans, we are too impatient to listen, even to ourselves.
The screaming, the shouting, the complaints and the roaring were all about the last polls in Rivers State, the Lagos of the Southsouth. What went down as presidential, National Assembly, governorship and House of Assembly elections in dear Rivers got the people talking, screaming, shouting and roaring. Those polls, at the risk of being tagged an All Progressives Congress (APC) apologist, were sham. The international observers and their local counterparts said so in their reports. The media reflected as much in their coverage.
Now, the courts are speaking. And the verdict is: what passed as elections in Rivers were mockery of democracy and pure sham.
The Governorship Tribunal, which sat in Abuja for fear of its members being attacked by those who turned the state to theatre of war (apologies to the Supreme Court), said it was convinced that there was no proper election in the state. It thus nullified the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike. The other tribunals, in some shades, also confirmed that democracy was cheated in the House of Assembly and National Assembly elections.
But, the Appeal Court simply sealed the coffin on the sham that produced the members of the National Assembly and the governor.
Now, Rivers has no senators and only one member of the House of Representatives, who survived because the court said the APC candidate was not qualified to run. The people have no one to blame but those who raped democracy and left it in the rain to drench and perhaps die. Thanks to the Court of Appeal, which has rescued it through its landmark judgment, which some have likened to a tsunami. This tidal wave has wiped away the men selected for the people. Soon, the people will queue again and have the opportunity to choose their true leaders. I have no problem with PDP winning but winning crookedly is what I detest and will detest forever.
In sacking the governor two days ago, the Court of Appeal in a 110-page judgment said the election raped the Electoral Act.
The daylight robbery that took place in the name of polls saw parties that did not even participate in the elections being allotted figures on the result sheets. The thieves were so much in a hurry that they forgot to put the books in good shape. They left trails and these have let them down.
Stakeholder Democracy Network noted in its report that in Asari Toru Local Government Area, two parties that were not on the ballot, UDP and NPP got votes. UDP got eight votes, while NPP got 21 votes. Other local government areas where parties that were not on the ballot were recorded on result sheets included Omuma Local Government Area (three parties not on ballot), Port Harcourt Local Government Area (two parties not on the ballot), Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area, Akuku Toru, and Ogu Bolu LGAs.
What really pains me is the violence in those elections. The Stakeholder Democracy Network desrcibed the elections in Rivers State as “almost certainly the most extensively disrupted in the country”.
It added: “Violent incidents were reported throughout the day, the worst of which occurred in the morning of Saturday, April 11. These included several reported deaths and attacks on party representatives, journalists and election officials.”
Because of the bizarre violence, many are now homeless. Many are now fatherless; many are widows; and many are on wheel chairs, with pellets of bullets locked in their bones. Dreams have died and aspirations doomed.
I am particularly troubled by the fate of Paul and Ogechi Adube. I thank God for their lives. They would have died on April 3 when men without brains stormed their home in ONELGA and killed their father, Christopher Adube and three of their siblings. They also killed their family driver and a family friend who was in their home when they came, dressed like soldiers, that evening. The bullets they pumped into 15-year-old Paul’s leg have ensured he is wheel-chair bound. The hot lead they released unto Ogechi’s legs have also seen rods inserted into her bones and because of this, she cannot fold her legs. You can imagine the pains of walking around with legs that feel like wood.
Of the 12 children Adube had with his two wives, three were killed with him; two were left practically crippled and the others now live with shattered dreams. They are not sure of where the next meal will come from. Their father’s sin, I am made to understand, was his affiliation with the APC. His children’s sin was being born by him. The evil men applied the law of Moses forgetting that the coming of our lord Jesus Christ marked the end of that law, which encouraged taking out the father’s sin on the son or daughter.
Paul and Ogechi need help. They can walk again and lead normal lives. All they need is surgery. Their father did not leave the kind of money that can guarantee them the best of medical care, which will bring them back to normalcy. It will make them forgive, but certainly not forget.
The Adubes and several others are not here to see the tsunami in Rivers. But Ogechi, Paul and other victims of the violence before, during and after the polls are still here, with memories and pains of the bad times thrust on their dear state.
As I regularly do on this space, I want to pray for those who killed the Adubes and others. Nemesis will catch up with them. Whatever they have gained or profited by spilling the blood of others and making the likes of Paul and Ogechi crippled, they will lose a hundred fold. They will be exposed and made to face the music.
And lest I forget: The court verdicts have set tongues wagging. I hear the victims saying they were cheated. I hear them saying the people’s mandate freely given to them have been taken away by compromised men, when they know deep down that they were products of fraud. I hear them saying they will get their mandate back when they return to the polls next year. I hear them pointing fingers and blaming others for wounds they willfully inflicted on themselves. They have forgotten that God is still God. And what comes to my mind when I hear them say all these is to borrow the famous words of Obj: I dey laugh o.
The Court of Appeal will soon rule on the House of Assembly petitions. I believe all the petitions will turn out in favour of the APC. When that happens, it will not come as a surprise. It will just confirm what we all knew: there were no polls in Rivers. Some people just sat in private homes and elsewhere and concocted figures for their party’s candidates.
By the time the Court of Appeal will speak on the House of Assembly petitions, chances are high that Wike will be all alone— awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court.
But as I conclude this, I remember Wike is a praying governor. There is power in prayers. So, miracle can still happen. The snag here, however, is that he is not the only one who knows how to pray. His opponents also know the efficacy of prayers and they are not leaving anything to chance.
The interesting thing about prayers and its efficacy is the fact that God is not a God of injustice. So, when you pray and you are not doing so with clean heart, God will certainly let you down.
My final take: There is no problem if they win transparent elections. But it is hightime they stopped deceiving themselves that what the courts returned were not justice. They should stop blaming their losses on compromised judges. Before the courts spoke on the Rivers elections, the media had spoken; the foreign and local observers spoke. What the courts have only done is to validate what we all knew and have condemned. My wish at the end of it all is for Rivers and its people to dey kampe.
