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Fake Results Broadcasts By Channels Television and Delta Broadcasting Service Asaba

April 13, 2011

Dear Professor Attahiru Jega Chairman INEC:  We write on behalf of our principal, Barrister Omasan Agbajoh, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) candidate, for member, Federal House of Representatives, representing the Warri Federal Constituency.

Dear Professor Attahiru Jega Chairman INEC:  We write on behalf of our principal, Barrister Omasan Agbajoh, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) candidate, for member, Federal House of Representatives, representing the Warri Federal Constituency.

It was with great consternation that we watched several news programs over the past 24 hours that announced the spurious claim that the PDP candidate had been returned elected for this seat. First was the mouthpiece of the Uduaghan Government in Asaba, the Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS), which did this in the dead of the night in its final news broadcast for the 11th of April; and tonight Channels Television, which should ordinarily be more discerning in its choice of sources, carried this same lie. For the avoidance of doubt, we will state the following now and categorically: The Delta State REC, as at the 12th of April 2011, has not announced any results for the said election that held on the 9th of April, 2011. The reasons are myriad; the following list, while depressing in its portrayal of desperation and political brigandage and impunity is by no means exhaustive.

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1. Massive rigging and ballot box stuffing. Our agents have plied the Delta State REC with tons of documentary evidence depicting instances of rigging, outright falsification of results and ballot box stuffing.

2. Ballot box snatching, voter intimidation and a planned campaign of mayhem. In a curious tactic now known as “Rigging by Elimination” these politicians attacked polling units in which they assumed that they were weak, where high-value polling units were located. This viciousness was perpetuated in the hope that INEC would make good on its threat to cancel elections wherever there were instances of violence.

3. Based on these and many more problems our supporters have kept vigil at the INEC office in Asaba; they are protesting, peacefully, the daylight robbery perpetuated by these thieves.

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4. Our candidate, Omasan Agbajoh, has also petitioned the INEC, mentioning in addition to the above, the several instances of unilateral shifting of ward collation centre s to the homes of PDP bigwigs in Warri, the attacks on the Egbema communities of Tsekelewu and Ogbingbiri in Warri-North LGA, wherein election materials were stolen, the pirate attack on a boat conveying results from Gbaramatu, which resulted in the destruction of filled results sheets by PDP thugs/pirates.

5. These petitions and complaints have led to the REC absconding from his duty post.

So when did he announce the results? The media should not turn itself into a rigging apparatus. There are laws in the Nigerian Constitution that proscribe such lapses; there are clauses in the broadcasters’ code of conduct that protect the public from such lapses in ethics.

We reinterate: NO RESULTS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR THE WARRI FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY, INDEED FOR THE ENTIRE DELTA-SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT, and we condemn any attempt to subvert the electoral laws via such amateurish pranks
Yours faithfully


 
 

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