SENATOR YISA BRAIMOH
SAN FRANCISCO, October 28, (THEWILL) – A federal lawmaker, who represented Edo North on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from 2007 to 2011 at the Senate, Senator Yisa Braimoh, has called on Nigerians to use the proposed national conference to push for the abrogation of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) in the Constitution and return the conduct of Local Government elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Maintaining that the proposed National Conference should provide Nigerians with opportunity to push for the abrogation of SIECs in the country’s constitution, Senator Braimah said this has become imperative in view of the experience at the recent chairmanship and councillorship rerun elections in Esan North East Local Government in Edo State where the State Government and the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) allegedly supplanted Hon. John Yakubu of the PDP who won the chairmanship election with Mr. Sam Oboh of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
According to Braimah , the elected PDP councilors were reportedly given their certificates of return by the EDSIEC Ward Returning Officers but the Local Government Returning Officer who had the responsibility of announcing the winner of the chairmanship election fled from Uromi and the Chairman of EDSIEC, Solomon Ogoh, in Benin announced the APC candidate winner of the election while collation of results was yet to be concluded in Uromi, the headquarters of Esan North East Local Government Area.
Braimoh made the submissions on Monday in a statement issued in Abuja. According to him, “The pattern of the conduct and results of Local Government elections nationwide in recent years and up to now make it imperative for the forthcoming National Conference to abolish SIECs and return the responsibility for council elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
He noted that the action of the Edo State Government in the conduct and announcement of what he described as fictitious result for the chairmanship election in Esan North East Local Government was condemnable and underscored the magnitude of electoral manipulation and democratic flaws at that level of government.
He wondered why Governor Adams Oshiomhole would commission a 30-minute live broadcast on a private television station to allegedly accuse the State Commissioner of Police and Police personnel of electoral fraud in the conduct and announcement of results of Esan North East Local Government elections.
“The entire contraption in Edo State is laughable and the brazen electoral thievery is condemnable. This is the first time in the annals of election in Nigeria that the perceived winner of State Local Government election would commission a live television broadcast to justify perfidy through diversion of attention by throwing barbs at the Police,” Braimah said.
The former federal lawmaker lamented that since 1999 , results of Local Government elections have been 100 percent predictable in the direction of landslide victory for the party in power in the states, describing the development as a fundamental flaw in our democratic experiment.
“Reasons for this unacceptable democratic flaw are not far-fetched: corruption, winner-takes-all syndrome and the awesome powers wielded by State Governors in the guise of ‘Executive Governor’ under the presidential system of government, et al,” he said.
He however opined that the proposed national conference would afford Nigerians the opportunity to make a case for, and push for, the abolition of SIECs, saying the confab would circumvent the State Governors’ opposition to the scrapping of SIECs through the normal process of constitution review exercise by the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly.
National Confab: Ex-Federal Lawmaker Urges Nigerians To Push For Abrogation Of SIECs
