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| Professor Jega at the press briefings. |
• Urge voters to participate in fresh exercise
• APC, rights group decry detention of monitors
STAKEHOLDERS Wednesday adjudged last Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State free and fair, just as they urged voters to participate in the forthcoming supplementary poll.
In the same vein, National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, expressed satisfaction with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) decision to hold supplementary election.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Network for Power Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) have described as totally inexplicable and unjustifiable the continued detention of the 182 election observers who were illegally arrested in Imo State two days before last the governorship election in Anambra, even after INEC has publicly said they were duly certified poll monitors.
Also, the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) has revealed some of the challenges faced by INEC) in the conduct of the election which so far, has been declared inconclusive.
A coalition of observers under the aegis of INEC Accredited Organisations, Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) women’s wing and the traditional ruler of Awka, Eze Uzu, Obi Gibson Nwosu, yesterday declared that the process of the election complied with internationally-accepted standards and best practices.
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Addressing reporters in Awka, spokesman of the coalition of INEC Accredited Organisations, Dr. Gabriel Nwambu of the Independent Domestic Election Observers, commended INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, for conducting ‘one of the freest and fairest elections’ in the history of Nigeria, adding that his committed members of staff also were determined to make a positive difference in the electoral process.
Others at the briefing were Alhaji Ali Abacha (Voter Awareness Initiative); Nweke Fidelis (Centre LSD); Emeh Friday Eleogo (Transparency Centre Network); Freed Madubike (Reclaim Naija) and Serah Onele (Justice and Equity).
The group said among other things that “the election was hitch-free and that there were no incidences of violence recorded,… there were no instance of voter apathy.” Even though they also noted that “elections commenced relatively late due to logistic problems in terms of distribution and arrival of materials, they said that they were in support of holding supplementary polls in the state.
The group also appealed to aggrieved candidates to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship as election was not a do-or-die affair, stressing that in every election, a winner must emerge.
Also speaking in his palace, Obi Gibson Nwosu, while giving the governorship poll a pass mark, said: “I have never come across any one election that was so peaceful and well organised.
“From reports received from my daughter whom I sent to observe events at the polling unit where I voted, there was no violence. If what happened in my ward is to be taken as a cue, the election was peaceful and security agents did their work well.
The President of ASATU women wing, Dr. Chinelo Okechukwu, said the voting pattern and the results declared so far reflected the wishes of the people in Anambra State, especially in Onitsha area where she cast her vote.
She cautioned those calling for the total cancellation of the results to be reasonable and join hands to work for progress in the state.
Umeh, who was the party’s agent in the election, said shortly after INEC’s announcement that his party has no reason to worry about the development. According to him, the supplementary election will further boost APGA’s victory.
He said: “APGA is the only party that has the numbers. Where will they get the votes to upset our lead? We have the spread in the local councils and we have the votes. Neither the first runner up nor the third candidate has the spread.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed shock at the brazen contempt of court displayed by the police when the observers were brought before a Magistrate on Monday.
It said even though the charges of conspiracy to commit misdemeanor, unlawful assembly and conduct likely to breach peace were bailable, the police acted in such an irresponsible, unlawful and contemptuous manner just to ensure the suspects were not granted bail.
‘’Having brought the alleged suspects before a magistrate, one would have expected that the Imo police command will allow the judicial process to follow its due course. Rather, men and officers of the police command acted in a manner that tainted the entire Nigeria police and called to question their motive for arresting the innocent observers in the first instance.
‘’Just before the case was called, the police suddenly seized and took away some of the suspects. When this came to the knowledge of the lawyers representing the observers, they raised it with the presiding magistrates, who ruled that the court will stand the matter down for two hours so that the remaining suspects could be produced before the court.
‘’Shockingly, the Officer in Charge (Legal) - acting on ‘orders from above’ - brought out his gun and ordered equally gun-wielding men to forcefully return all the accused to the police cell, and right in the presence of the presiding magistrate and other lawyers, the suspects were taken away and were never returned, forcing the magistrate to adjourn the case to December 6.”
The party called on the police hierarchy, if it has any honour left, to sanction the officer and men involved in the contempt of court and perversion of justice, to serve as a warning to other policemen who are bent on turning Nigeria to a Banana Republic.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos yesterday, the Programme/Advocacy Co-ordinator, NOPRIN, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, flayed the police for increasing partisanship and lawlessness in election, which he said, was a threat to Nigeria democracy.
Chairman of IPAC, Tanko Yunusa, said in an interview in Abuja yesterday that many people could not vote because an electoral officer went away with the result sheet and did not return on time. Another cause of the problem, according to Tanko, was the mistake made in sharing voters’ forms among the polling stations.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Peter Obi on Media and Publicity, Mr. Valentine Obienyem, has called on the people of Anambra State to remain calm over what he called the stage-managed protest against the November 16 election.
Obienyem said that investigations showed that those who protested, especially women that pretended to be crying, were imported from Osun State in five chartered luxury buses.
“Ngige and his group wanted protest at all costs, but when our people, who already know him for what he is refused, they had to go to Osun State,” Obienyem stated.
“Even yesterday, they imported some boys from Imo State to protest as students. The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, who has taken the university to great heights, Prof. Boniface Egboka, was alarmed. When contacted on phone, he had to rush down to that school for investigations. Having discovered that those involved were not his students, he said, ‘please beware of those evil men who lost. I’ve checked with all my relevant officials; the story of UNIZIK Students is fallacious! We have our respects, belief and integrity, more so, students are not in the school right now.’
“On further investigations and interrogation of the boys, they confessed that APC people paid them N1,500 each and chartered the buses that conveyed them from Imo State to Anambra.”
Insisting that the November 16 election was one of the best in Nigeria, Obienyem wondered that while “the Igbo and all men of goodwill commend the election, only Ngige and his APC people are against it.”
Source: Guardian
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