Senator Helen Esuene
By Okon Bassey in Uyo,
The Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in the last governorship and House of Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom State, Senator Helen Esuene, Hs said she has weighty evidence to challenge the outcome of the election at the tribunal.
The evidence, THISDAY gathered include still pictures and video cameras showing rigging, hijacking/diversion of materials, violence, killing, use of thugs/fake security personnel, connivance between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ad-hoc workers, security agencies and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as non-use of card readers contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Esuene and her party disclosed that a team of legal luminaries has been assembled and ready to tackle the conduct of the election in the state with evidence gathered.
The Deputy Director-General, Senator Helen Esuene Campaign Organisation, Mr. Bassey Essien, said in an interview that “what we had was something less than an election”.
He said INEC will prove to the tribunal where it got 996,071 votes to declare the candidate of the PDP, Udom Emmanuel winner in an election where materials where hijacked and card readers abandoned at the polling units.
According to him, security operatives, officials of INEC ad-hoc staff and the PDP were all collaborators in perpetuating heavy electoral fraud in the state.
“The level of rigging was so much and even embarrassing to the people of Akwa Ibom and Nigeria as a whole because the level of thuggery was unprecedented.
“I am a grassroots politician for many years, I have never witnessed this kind of thing in my life. The security operatives and the INEC officials were the perpetuators”.
He said after presenting the evidence before the tribunal, the burden will be on the INEC National Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega to prove his integrity now being is in doubt.
“INEC has failed and even INEC knows that they have failed, either they admit it in public or not, they know that they did not only fail but they failed woefully.
“Even when they were bought over they supposed to at least pretend that election was free and fair not them conniving. Most of the units or collation centres they did not show up. INEC office in different local government councils there was no collation done there but they announced result. We will challenge the matter in the tribunal for them to defend their wrongful act.
“This is one time he has to prove that high moral standard, discipline and uprightness because it was very clear that all their staff were bought over”, he said.
Essien, who is a one-time Speaker in the Akwa Ibom State House said within the time frame of accreditation on the election day, “we were receiving phone calls in all the units in the state that the materials were hijacked by people who were supposed to ensure a free and fair election and these people are the security personnel, INEC officials and the PDP.
“The proper accreditation was not done. All the units had a collation centre but none of them was put to use. Ballot boxes with materials were simply moved to the houses of influential people and government officials as collation centres. All over the state it was the same thing.
“Unfortunately this was the opportunity for INEC to prove the efficiency of their so-called card readers because going by the explanation they gave to Nigerians, their server banks must collate and from the information available in their server bank, they will know whether there was accreditation or not and the actual number of people who voted in each unit.
“It was a very shameful act and embarrassing that despite the fact they had all the resources in terms of finance, I wonder why they should result to that low level of rigging embarrassing the good people of this state. As far as we are concerned, that was not an election at all.
“The evidence is there, even the security operatives the honest ones and the people of conscience are there, INEC officials will tell you what happened. Those adhoc staff who attended the training was not the ones used.
“The evidence is there everywhere. I think we lost more than 40 lives because when the people tried to resist the forceful hijacking of electoral materials, they were shot down by thugs.
“In Ini, Ikono, and all over the states, some lives were lost in different locations of the state. I don’t believe that the life of any human being is worth being sacrificed for an individual political ambition.
“The functions of government anywhere on earth are to protect lives and property. When a government runs shot of that then it is less than government. That is the number one function of government. These acts distance the people completely from the electoral process and that is not good enough for us”, he stressed.
But, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Austine Eni Okojie had said that “the issue of late arrival of result sheet should not even arise because we issued all the sensitive materials at once and have trained and warned our electoral officers against dispatching any electoral material to politicians.”
He urged all those who participated in the conduct of the election and not satisfied with the outcome to act in accordance with the provision of the law by approaching the tribunal.
- thisdaylive.com
* Send Articles/Report for us., Email: brainnewsng@gmail.com
* For Advert Rates/Music Promotions/Website Dev., Email: info@brainnewsng.com
* Follow Brainnews Ng on Twitter @Brainnews_ng, Google+ @Brainnewsng and on Facebook @Brainnewsnigeria