CHRIS NJOKU writes on the crisis trailing the June 29 rerun election in Oguta state constituency of Imo State.
A week to the rerun election to the Imo State Assembly in Oguta last Saturday, Governor Rochas Okorocha's convoy was attacked by political thugs to signal the nature of things to come in the local government area. Thuggery and violence has characterised elections in Oguta since 2011 governorship election was declared inconclusive in the local government area.
Last Saturday's rerun election was the fourth time the people of Oguta had failed to have a successful free and fair election. The governor was at Awa community to drum up support for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate, Walter Uzonwanne when the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Eugene Dibiagwu allegedly attacked him. Both parties fighting for the soul of Oguta attach serious importance to the June 29 rerun election which was described as a supremacy battle.
Okorocha needs the victory to prove to the world and the hierarchy of the All Progressive Congress, APC, that he is in charge of voters in the state and that the so-called Abuja PDP politicians are out of relevance. For PDP it was an election to return to reckoning and also take majority lead in the House which is currently under the firm control of the governor.
The PDP is also using the election to show Nigerians that Oguta is still their stronghold. This was why the presence of heavily armed security personnel of combined team of soldiers from the 34 Artillery Brigade led by the Commander, Madibbo Akali and stern looking Policemen led by the state Commissioner of Police, Katsina Musa Muhammed, could not stop the violence, sporadic shootings and ballot snatching at the last Saturday's election.
In some of the communities, like Osemoto, Obidiagwa, Oguta and Izombe there were heavy shooting by armed thugs who invaded the voting centres, while four bus loads of armed militants were arrested by the Police. However, the late arrival of voting materials and late accreditation in many of the wards in the local government area did not help matters. This aggravated the situation as voters believed that the delay was a ploy to rig the election.
In some of the polling booths, election did not hold at all and where the election was held many irregularities such as falsification of results were noticed.
These irregularities made the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Imo State led by Prof. Selina Oko, to declare the election inconclusive. She said that no election was conducted in eight polling units in the LGA as INEC officials were prevented from performing their duty of ensuring that every eligible voter exercises his or her franchise and therefore forwarded her report on the election to INEC headquarters in Abuja. It was based on the report submitted to Abuja that INEC issued a statement on Tuesday proffering reasons why the election was declared inconclusive.
According to the statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to INEC national chairman, Kayode Idowu, the election witnessed incidents of violence and unruly conduct by partisans, necessitating the cancellation of the election in the eight (8) polling units which include, PU 001 in Ward 05 (Ndeloukwu/Umuowerre) – with 768 registered voters, PU 007 in Ward 03 (Izombe) – 939 voters, PU 009 in Ward 09 (Oru) – 708 voters, PU 010 (Ward 09) – 657 voters, PU 011 (Ward 09) – 407 voters, PU 012 (Ward 09) – 408 voters, PU 013 (Ward 09) – 667 voters and PU 003 in Ward 02 (Egwe/ Egbuoma) – 212 voters. According to the commission, the total population of registered voters in the polling units affected was over 4,000; whereas the difference between the leading candidate and the next in the collated results was 2,011 votes.
"The procedure is that where the number of registered voters involved in a cancelled election exceeds the difference in the votes of the two leading candidates in collated results, the election will be declared inconclusive," INEC said.
The Commission said it is worrisome that politicians and hooligans brazenly flouted the restriction order on movement during the election. Reports showed that officials of the Imo State Government and some members of the National Assembly across party lines moved around freely despite the restriction order – some of them with security escorts. Worse, some of these politicians are not even from Oguta constituency where the election held.
But Governor Okorocha armed with his own election results, disagreed with INEC declaration, arguing that APGA candidate won the election and should be issued certificate of return.
Addressing newsmen at the Government House on the development, Okorocha said there was no basis for INEC's declaration that the election was inconclusive since the document/report of the conduct of the election had already been signed by the local government returning officer, Dr. Cynthia Oguike appointed by INEC.
He argued that from the results already collated and signed the APGA candidate, Uzonwanne, led with 9,595 votes against PDP Eugene Dibiagwu's 7,584 votes and wondered why INEC would want to declare such election inconclusive because the result of eight polling booths are not there.
The governor accused leaders of PDP of masterminding the problem that attended the election even as he said the rerun was the first real election in Oguta. Okorocha warned that enough is enough. "I have personally endured humiliations in order that peace may reign in the state. I believe that the election is not worth the blood of any Imo indigene but the PDP will not allow peace to reign," the governor said.
However, the Imo PDP brandishing its own results, blamed Governor Okorocha for the crisis that engulfed the election, adding that the governor directed all his commissioners, traditional rulers and civil servants in the area to deliver the APGA candidate or lose their appointments. The state chairman of the party, Eze Duruiheoma, SAN, who accused the governor of showcasing to the public a falsified INEC result disclosed further that the governor was about to cause another problem following his plans to use a customary court judge to swear in the APGA candidate.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha and his Senate counterpart, Ike Ekweremadu, were accused of storming Oguta with their retinue of security personnel. But the PDP explained that the two members were just there to monitor the election.
Disturbed by the development, President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the irregularities that marred the election, adding that the conduct of certain persons and groups involved in the election totally negated the spirit of one man, one vote which his administration is trying to foster in Nigeria. The President Jonathan's call for the punishment of the perpetrators did not go down well in opposition quarters.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, slammed the Presidency for seeking to usurp the role of INEC by describing the rerun election to the Imo House of Assembly in Oguta as inconclusive. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, ACN said it was up to INEC to determine whether the election was 'inconclusive' or marred by 'violence and irregularities', not the presidency.
"To the best of our knowledge, it is either the candidates or the parties involved in an election that can take a legal recourse over any perceived irregularities. It therefore baffles us that the presidency has rushed to declare the election inconclusive and marred by rigging, and to call for the prosecution of those involved, simply because its preferred candidate lost," ACN said.
How it started
The rerun poll was ordered after the sacking of Dibiagwu as legislator by the Court of Appeal, Owerri on April 20, 2013. This was as a result of the April 26, 2011 State Assembly and governorship elections which were held in Oguta Local Government Area and declared inconclusive by INEC.
Dissatisfied by this decision, the PDP candidate, Dibiagwu, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Owerri challenging the powers of INEC to cancel an election and order for a rerun.
Delivering judgement in the suit, the Federal High Court, Owerri ruled that INEC was in order to have ordered for a rerun poll and dismissed the suit and affirmed that INEC acted on the powers granted it by Section 26 (4) of the Electoral Act. Dibiagwu, dissatisfied with the ruling of the High Court, filed an appeal.
The Court of Appeal upheld his appeal and ruled that the election should be repeated in four out of 11 electoral wards in the Oguta Local Government Area. INEC obeyed the court order and conducted a rerun election in the four wards and thereafter declared Dibiagwu validly elected. Dissatisfied with the declaration of Dibiagwu as validly elected, Uzonwanne of APGA headed to the Election Tribunal and filed a petition challenging the result. Delivering its judgement, the Tribunal nullified the election in the four wards and ordered for a rerun poll in the entire 11 wards.
Aggrieved by the ruling, both PDP and its candidate, Dibiagwu, filed separate appeals at the Court of Appeal, Owerri and on April 12, 2013, both appeals were consolidated. In his judgement, the presiding Justice Ignatius Agube declared that Dibiagwu emerged winner of the election "through a faulty process" and nullified the election and ordered a rerun.
The judge also denounced the ignoble and disgraceful role played by INEC in reprobating and approbating an action that is capable of catalysing mayhem, anarchy and conflagration in Imo State. Ever since the election was declared inconclusive, both INEC and other interested parties have tried to justify their actions. With the decision of INEC to conduct the election in the eight polling units where the election was cancelled, tension has heightened in the state.
National Mirror