The governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has allowed desperation to push him to the extreme of electoral manipulation; and, this is unfortunate. Perhaps, in an attempt to live up to his preconceived political calculations to have the chairmanship of all the 18 Local Government Areas in the state in the kitty of the All Progressive Congress (APC), he had gone overboard on Tuesday (October 22, 2013) when, acting in concert with the Chairman of the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC), Mr Solomon Ogoh, a certain candidate in the chairmanship election in Esan North-East Local Government, who did not score the highest votes, was declared winner.
Oshiomhole, deploying state power in its vast flourish, challenged due process, freeness, fairness, transparency and credibility of electoral process when he caused the chairmanship candidate of his APC, Sam Oboh, who came second in the election behind the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. John Yakubu, to be declared as the winner of the election. It is on record that the announcement was made in Benin City whereas the election took place in Esan North East Local Government and the chairmanship result was supposed to have been announced at the council headquarters in Uromi.
The governor had on Wednesday, a day after the election, sworn in Oboh; and, in his attempt to defend his curious action, he had launched a tirade at the Police accusing them of aiding and abetting electoral fraud. Read him: “I am embarrassed that the police have become electoral officials. What I heard yesterday (Tuesday) and I am still investigating, if the reports are correct, then Nigeria should be put on notice that the police may well have chosen to become INEC or EDSIEC officials; and have chosen to overthrow those who are authorized by law to conduct elections.
“As a Nigerian, I am embarrassed that the police are involved in carrying electoral materials, arresting EDSIEC returning officers and coercing them into police station and converting it into a collation centre supervised by policemen imported from Abuja and Lagos in order to subvert the will of the people of Esan North East.” Characteristic of Oshiomhole, he blabbed on and on. But rather than undermine the electoral process by causing the declaration of Oboh, who did not win the election, as winner, the governor should have headed for the courts to test the claims of rigging.
Instead of encouraging the state electoral chief to disregard the collated results of the chairmanship election in favour of the APC candidate, Oshiomhole should have allowed the right thing to be done. The governor, through the EDSIEC chair, should have instructed concerned officers, ab-initio, to declare the results that are collated at the polling stations and collation centres. Oshiomhole did not do this. It turned out to be his mistake; indeed, his indiscretion in the overall plan to shut out the PDP from being part of governance in the state.
The people of Esan North East must be shell shocked at what the governor has done to them. Their mandate which they gave to Hon. Yakubu of the PDP has been stolen by the governor and the EDSIEC chairman and given to Oboh of the APC. Desperation to control all council areas in the state must have pushed the governor to spurn fine details in the Chairmanship election in Esan North East Local Government. He ignored the details contained in the official result sheets which were in the custody of all the party agents and EDSIEC officials as to the authentic winners of the election.
The governor’s man Friday, Solomon Ogoh (EDSIEC Chair) did not care to display the votes scored in each ward for the chairmanship which he totaled to arrive at 12, 672 for the APC candidate and 3, 314 for the PDP candidate. Both of them were, perhaps, not concerned about the fine details of the votes garnered by all eleven PDP councilors who were given their certificate of returns when they were declared winner.
APC did not win a single councillorship seat in the election. Should that not have instructed Oshiomhole and Ogoh to be more careful about snatching the chairmanship mandate given to Yakubu by the people since the PDP presented a common front. In fact, Yakubu’s wonderful performance record when he was once Chairman of the Local Government Area Council contributed greatly to his popularity. He is said to be better preferred by the people. He is also said to draw largely from the solid support of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP and Iyasele of Esanland, Chief Tony Anenih whose political machinery was deployed behind Yakubu and the councillorship candidates.
Available records from the field showed that the PDP councillorship candidates cumulatively scored 11,212 votes while the APC candidates scored 6,143. A princely 11,332 votes went to the PDP chairmanship candidate while the APC candidate scored 6,248. What Oshiomhole did and which he has been trying to justify was to set an ambush for the PDP. He must have said to himself: “PDP can do whatever it likes in the field to win the election, but we, because we are in control of the EDSIEC, will declare our own winners of the election.” That was what happened.
Having sworn in the APC candidate (Oboh) as chairman, the only way for the PDP to reverse the development and reclaim its stolen chairmanship mandate is through the courts. I understand that the PDP and his chairmanship candidate are indeed heading for the courts. After all, it was the court that declared Oshiomhole winner of the 2007 governorship election in November 2008. Yakubu and his PDP can latch on the judicial platform to challenge the indiscretion by Oshiomhole to dilate the process of take-over of the Esan North East Local Council Area by the PDP by ensuring that Oboh assumes office as chairman.
But with the weight of evidence believed to be in support of Yakubu and this party, the PDP, how fast will the wheel of justice move in their direction? Will Yakubu, who unofficially won the cancelled April 24, 2013 election in the Local Government Area, be able to reclaim his stolen chairmanship mandate? If he succeeds in reclaiming his mandate, how will the outcome of the judicial process affect the politics and disposition of Oshiomhole? Answers to these questions lie in the womb of time.
Written By Francis Ehigiator
