February 4, 2010
Thugs hired by Charles Chukwuma Soludo, governorship candidate of the PDP, today attacked election observers accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The attack took place early evening at Barn Hotel, Awka where the election observers as well as Mr. Soludo are lodged.Soludo’s thugs unleashed physical assault on the monitors when the leader of the election observers, retired Colonel Bello Fadile, became suspicious after he noticed some people filling out accreditation forms in the hotel bar. The forms are only meant for INEC-accredited poll observers, but Mr. Fadile saw that the group had 300 forms that were being filled out. Fadile accosted them and asked who gave them the forms. They asked who he was and he explained that he was the leader of INEC’s election observer team.
Realizing that they were in trouble, the group told Fadile that they got the forms from Soludo’s campaign team. They also disclosed that Soludo and his deputy were lodged in the hotel.
Fadile and another observer, Femi Aduwo, immediately called in the police to arrest the group. Unknown to Fadile, Soludo’s team had also called for reinforcement.
The moment the police arrested the group with the forms, Soludo’s thugs surrounded the election observer team as well as the police and unleashed a savage attack on them. Fadile's clothes were torn while Aduwo received a machete cut on his head before the police rescued them.
At the height of the assault, some members of the election observer team called Soludo’s room to appeal to him to intervene, but the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria refused to show up. Instead he sent his deputy who appeared and asked the observers to run for dear life, stating that the Soludo campaign “has no control over our boys.”
The police managed to spirit the observers to the state CID office in Awka where they are still sequestered at the time of writing this report.
Wale Fapohunda, one of the members of the observer team, told Saharareporters that their group made disturbing discoveries from Soludo’s thugs. He told our reporter that the State CID seized and is possession of the “accounting records” of the Soludo thugs, which includes how Soludo plans to pay off DPOs in Awka in order to enlist law enforcement officers in rigging tomorrow’s governorship election.
Late last night, two highly reliable sources told Saharareporters that Mr. Soludo, who amassed a huge fortune during his tenure as CBN governor, had paid $5,000 as bribe to each INEC administrative secretary. The sources revealed that the bribes were paid through INEC commissioner Victor Chukwuani who met with the administrative secretaries yesterday.
INEC chair Maurice Iwu was not seen at the meeting, but our sources said he gave his blessing to the distribution of Soludo’s largess. Mr. Iwu has been avoiding being served with copies of a court ruling that INEC, as presently constituted, lacks the constitutionally mandated quorum to organize elections.
INEC currently has only four commissioners instead of 13. Five commissioners are required to form a quorum, but Mr. Iwu, whose tenure should have expired last year, refused to allow Ishmael Igbani from Rivers State to rejoin the commission’s board even though Mr. Igbani was reappointed, presented to the Council of State, and cleared.
A source at INEC told us that Iwu (with Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa’s support) blocked Igbani’s name being sent to the Senate for approval. “Professor Iwu does not trust Igbani to go along with his games,” said the source, adding that Iwu “feels more comfortable wheeling and dealing with Chukwuani and Philip Umeadi Jr. who are his lackeys.”
Saharareporters also learned yesterday that Chris Uba, younger brother of the Labour Party governorship candidate Andy Uba, was coordinating the last minute doling out of bribes on behalf of his brother at his house, number 7 TY Danjuma Street in Asokoro Abuja. Our source said Mr. Andy Uba, an aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, had voted N1.3 billion to buy as many voters cards as possible and also to bribe polling officers.
Our correspondent in Anambra reports massive police presence throughout the state ahead of tomorrow’s election.
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