Those who gave INEC and the Nigeria Police the benefit of the doubt as to their competence and seriousness on elections management must be having a rethink now. The Commission has proved once again that the Leopard cannot change its spot. From all indications there were no plans to do a free and fair rerun in Ekiti. Only Mr Okiro and his high command can explain why In spite of the heavy presence of police personnel in the state, hired thugs took over the state and made peaceful election impossible. Largely, what took place in Ekiti was a battle between election robbers and the people. Whether or not victory would be won by the people depends on not just the resilience of the people of Ekiti who have so far shown that they would give all it takes to protect their mandate, but on how other people of conscience rise to their support. This is the time for every decent person to speak out and boldly. Iwu has to go, I insist for us to make any appreciable headway in elections in this country.
The report that the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was pressured to announce a fake result seems corroborated by the fact that the woman has disappeared into thin air for her safety. The questions that we need to ask are these: who mounted pressure on the woman? Why was another INEC personnel so desperate to announce the result of the election in the absence of the substantive REC? Why did Iwu not instruct the woman to announce the correct result? Why would the woman have to run for safety in spite of 10,000 police personnel?
The most alarming part of the show of shame in Ekiti is that elections observers were hounded, and beaten by thugs freely. Rather than rescue the observers, the police arrested them on the suspicion that they were on espionage. This is ludicrous to say the very least. I demand that Dr Abubakar Momoh and other election observers held hostage by the police should be set free immediately and unconditionally. Those who have nothing to hide wont arrest and beat up accredited election observers. When are we going to have enough of these vermin? When really?!
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