BENIN-CITY—THE
fog of uncertainty beclouding conduct of the Edo State governorship election
has cleared. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, last night,
yielded to security advice and postponed the election to Wednesday, September
28, 2016. But for the postponement, which is raising dust in the polity, the
polls would have been held tomorrow. INEC National Commissioner for Voters
Education and Publicity, Mr Solomon Atoyebi, anchored the postponement on
security concerns at a news briefing in Benin, the Edo State capital at 8pm.
Mr. Atoyebi had at an earlier briefing, yesterday afternoon, brushed aside the
security advice from the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, to
postpone the polls on the basis of alleged security threats directed against
some states of the federation, Edo inclusive, because the electoral commission
was 97 per cent prepared to conduct the exercise. The postponement elicited
immediate response from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which rejected the
move and Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, who said the development
was a bad signal for Nigeria’s democracy. From left, Force Public Relations
Officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police Don Awunah and Mr Garba Abdullahi of
Department of State Services addressing pressmen in Abuja on the credible
intelligence availed the agencies of plans by insurgent/extremist element to
attack vulnerable communities and soft targets with high population during
Sallah celebrations between 12th and 13th September, 2016 and the need to
postpone Edo State Election at the weekend . Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan. From
left, Force Public Relations Officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police Don Awunah
and Mr Garba Abdullahi of Department of State Services addressing pressmen in
Abuja on the credible intelligence availed the agencies of plans by
insurgent/extremist element to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets
with high population during Sallah celebrations between 12th and 13th
September, 2016 and the need to postpone Edo State Election at the weekend .
Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan. Meanwhile there was pandemonium, yesterday, in
Okpella, Estako East Local Government area of Edo State as supporters of the
PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, clashed over the issue. It was gathered
that the incident started brewing in the early hours of yesterday, when some
PDP supporters were alleged to have threatened to attack any Okpella indigene
supporting the ruling APC. The clash came few hours to INEC’s postponement of
the election. Postponement illegal, unconstitutional —PDP Rejecting the
postponement, the PDP said the Saturday, September 10, 2016 (tomorrow) election
date should remain sacrosanct, since there was no tangible reason(s) evident to
tamper with the election. In a statement issued in Abuja by the spokesman of
the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, it said the “postponement of the election by
top hierarchy of the security agencies predicated on alleged security threat
was a less than ingenious attempt to buy time for the APC, which is clearly
heading for a major electoral catastrophe on Saturday. “It is shameful and
indeed a major constitutional breach for the security agencies to act in
concert with the APC to truncate an election that had been planned for months.
Nigerians were not deceived by the obvious concoctions of the security
agencies, which performances during elections had been less than average since
the advent of the Buhari administration. Indeed, they have become instruments
in the hands of the ruling party to harass, intimidate and punish opponents.”
He said the time might be ripe now for President Buhari and the National
Assembly to conduct a non-partisan holistic review and investigation of the
national security apparatus to save the nation’s fledging democracy. “Finally,
we call on all stakeholders – The Media, civil society organizations, all
political parties and indeed all Nigerians and the international community to
rise to defend our hard earned democracy from the assault being unleashed on it
by the APC government,” he said. Fayose: It’s bad signal for democracy Ekiti
State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose described the postponement as a bad signal
and beginning of the end of democracy in Nigeria. He added: “It is obvious that
the APC feared that it couldn’t win the election and was ready to employ
whatever crude means to subvert the wish of the people.” The governor, who said
he was alarmed by the APC government of President Mohammadu Buhari’s use of
security agencies to arm-twist democratic process said: “I warned Nigerians not
to elect Buhari, now we are all seeing the results. Our economy is in recession
and democracy is also in recession.” In a statement by his Special Assistant on
Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said INEC knew
that it was not going to conduct the election on Saturday as scheduled but
opted to deceive Nigerians. “Apart from the security agencies that they
instructed not to provide security for the election, Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) was under instruction since, yesterday (Wednesday) not to release
electoral materials to INEC. “It was just a game by the APC-led federal
government to frustrate the people of Edo State from kick-starting the journey
of changing the APC one-chance change in Nigeria, but they should realise that
the power of the people will always be greater than the power of those in
power.” Tension in Okpella, as PDP, APC supporters clash The APC and PDP
supporters clash came three days after a youth body in Okpella- Okpella Youth
Council, warned in a publication, of a possible invasion of the community by
thugs allegedly hired by unknown politicians in Okpella. It was also gathered
that the youths initially reacted to an alleged gun shot at the gate of a PDP
stalwart in Okpella that took place at about 3am, yesterday. According to an
eyewitness and a victim of the attack, Afebu Musa, who spoke on phone, they
summoned a meeting to explain the details to party supporters, who were curious
about the likelihood of the election not holding on Saturday after reports from
the police and DSS that there was a security threat in the state. Afebu said:
“We were at a meeting when they (party supporters) were passing during their
campaign and they stopped, shouting who is doing this here? I could hear some
of them saying, ‘this will not happen!’ “As if the property they destroyed were
not enough, they chased my pregnant wife and one of my tenants, who they
injured. I sneaked out of my house with the help of God and I don’t know how to
go back home because the police in Okpella were helpless at the scene of the
incident. We call on security agencies to help save us from the hands of these
boys. We have been peaceful all this while and no one has found us wanting
throughout the campaigns, but I am surprised to see this happening.” Oshiomhole
slams Wike, Okowa Before the postponement, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, had
earlier, yesterday, alleged that governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and
Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State had deployed militants from both states to Edo
State to perpetrate violence and disrupt the governorship election. He,
therefore, urged security agents to watch out for such planned violence, saying
that the APC was ready for election but “no nobody should shed the blood of our
people.” Oshiomhole raised the alarm when he received the National President of
the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Alhaji Waheed Odusile. PDP’s planned
violence has failed – Senator Obende The Director of Publicity of the APC
Campaign Council in Edo, Senator Domingo Obende, said PDP leaders were angry
over the postponement because they would not be able to perpetrate violence any
more. “I think we have two feelings and reactions. First and foremost, we have
prepared so hard and we believe and know that the voters were behind us and we were
going to win. Secondly, we are also happy because Edo has not been known to be
a state where violence is the order of the day. “So, if actually, for security
reasons, as stated by both the police and the DSS, this shift is realized, then
I think I am happy for it. It means any time they decide to fix it, election
will be peaceful. That is why I said I have mixed feelings. PDP is saying
rubbish because they have imported thugs and brought aliens to register in Edo
State. What is more is that our strength is the voters and we have them behind
us, they are not going to die. For us, any time, any day, we are ready for the
elections,’’ he said. Postponement advice poorly timed, wrongly presented — TMG
Civil society groups under the aegis of the Transition Monitoring Group, TMG,
in collaboration with the Conference of Edo State Non-Governmental
Organizations and Civil Society Organizations, said that the advice by the
Police and DSS to INEC to shift the election was poorly timed and wrongly
presented. Chairperson of TMG, Dr. Abiola Afolabi, told a press conference in
Benin, yesterday, that INEC and security agencies have channels of
communication to address the issue.She added that it was astonishing that INEC
was not taken into confidence before the security agencies announced their
preference for a postponement. Noting that there are undercurrents in the
security apparatus who are trying to suppress the electoral process, said:
“With the present economic recession as witnessed in the country, it is not
economically viable to postpone the election given the resources that have been
committed to the process by INEC, domestic and international observer group,
security as well as other stakeholders. “This clear interference in the
electoral process by security agencies is a throwback to the 2015 general
election, which was postponed at the behest of the nation’s security chiefs. We
feel strongly that this tendency could undermine the confidence of voters and
precipitate apathy and capable of building tension in the electoral space. This
could lead to electoral violence, which the security agencies are supposedly
trying to prevent.’’ The group called on INEC, the security agencies as well as
political parties to learn from the experiences of previous elections and ensure
that unsavoury incidents, which tainted the legitimacy of the electoral process
in the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections do not recur. Oshiomhole
engineered the postponement – Edo PDP EDO state chapter of the PDP fingered
Governor Oshiomhole in the advice by the Police and DSS to INEC to postpone the
election. Faulting the security threat adduced for the postponement, the party
also alleged that the plot to postpone the election was hatched by the Edo
State government led by the governor in conjunction with some members of a
cabal. PDP governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, and state chairman,
Chief Dan Orbih, made the allegation, yesterday, in Benin in their addresses to
party members and supporters at an emergency stakeholders’ meeting on the
planned postponement of the poll. Ize-Iyamu said: “I have been reliably
informed that when the chairman of INEC called the President, he categorically
told him (president) that he was not aware of such (security) challenges. It
was arranged by the state government with a cabal to postpone a day of
reckoning.’’ On his part, Orbih claimed that the PDP had uncovered a proposal
made by some people to the INEC to change Electoral Officers (EO) already
trained and mobilized for the election, adding that the party was already in
possession of the names of the electoral officers and that any attempt to
change them will be resisted by the PDP. He said at the stakeholders meeting
held with the INEC on Wednesday, the participating political parties were
assured that additional 25,000 policemen apart from the para-military groups
had been deployed for the election, adding that no threat would be too big in
such situation. “If one may ask, how did a state that hosted the president
during the APC rally in Benin 24 hours earlier without any hitches suddenly
become unsafe? If Edo was so unsafe as claimed, the security operatives would
certainly have advised Mr. president not to come.’’ We are ready for elections
but lives must be protected – Oyegun National Chairman of APC, Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, declared that the party was ready for the election but security
agents must check violence allegedly being plotted by the PDP. Oyegun who
reacted to the earlier decision of the INEC to go on with the election, told
journalists in Benin City: “I must confess that I am stunned and surprised,
suspicious and even begin to wonder if the security concerns expressed by
security agents have not started playing out. But whatever happens we have to
prepare ourselves INEC is the final arbiter on this issue. I have to make two
appeals. “Security agents must do everything humanly possible to make sure that
the security threats that they perceived, some of which some of us as party
leaders have come across, are contained. And I think in the interest of the
nation, they will do everything they possibly can to make sure that the fears
that has been expressed do not materialize because we take their views
seriously and we think everybody should but we are faced with this most unusual
situation. “Secondly, very very deep appeal will be to the voters of Edo State
not to be distracted by the seeming contradictions and confusions by fears of
insecurity because I have a feeling that with what INEC has done, security
agencies will pull out all the stunts to make sure nothing evil happens. So
they should not be afraid of their personal safety.
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