On the Trail of Umana Okon Umana

Nseobong Okon-Ekong reports while a storm of unanswered questions and puzzles raged in the mind of Obong Umana Okon Umana, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State, he kept a cool outlook and only showed signs of huma

Afew minutes after Six O’Clock in the morning of the day of the 2015 governorship and House of Assembly elections, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged from the inner recesses of his home at Ewet Housing Estate in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. It was apparent that he had not slept much. He was already dressed in a Senator-type midnight-blue trouser and top with a black cap and a pair of black sandal. Talking on the phone, he moved to the patio, the little crowd of domestic staff and party faithful in the courtyard advanced towards him. He motioned to a few of them and they followed him a little distance from the gathering. Done with his confidants, he walked back the short distance to address the group who were going to function as APC agents to monitor the elections at various wards, units and the state and local government headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Satisfied with the instructions, he moved back inside the house, as the leaders of the group took over to finalise arrangements.

Although, he was one of the reasons many in the state would go out of their way to exercise their civic responsibility of voting in the election, he did not betray any hint of anxiety as one who carried the hopes and aspiration of hundreds of thousands of indigenes of the state, the weight of the responsibility was not apparent on his countenance. His demeanor was that of a man who was going into a very important board meeting to trade ideas.

It was getting to Seven O’Clock and the convoy of cars set to make the 30-minutes journey to his country home in Ndiya, Nsit Ubium council. Expectedly, Umana was busy on the phone. This was going to be the pattern for the better part of the day. His wife, Florence was also issuing instructions. It was from her that we learnt why Umana and his team were not in Ndiya the day before the election; and indeed, why they were still in Uyo in the morning of the election. They were waiting for the arrival of the police and military escort promised them. At about 7:20 am, Umana overruled his wife and decided to risk the journey unprotected. He called everybody who was going to travel with him. A chain of hands was built. Heads bowed. Someone started a song. Two more songs. And Mrs. Umana who I later learnt is a pastor prayed. She implored God to give the travelling party a safe passage. She prayed for peace in the state and the nation. Her last prayer point was expected. A resounding ‘amen!’ followed when she knocked on Heaven’s Door requesting God to give her husband a resounding victory at the election. She also reminded God that He had given His word that her husband would rule Akwa Ibom. This was the hour of decision.

The journey to Nsit Ubium was uneventful. It was not yet 8:00 am, the time when movement would be restricted. The road was largely free of vehicular and human traffic. Only a few private vehicles were on the road. In some instances, ballot materials were being conveyed to polling units with vehicles bearing the tell-tale INEC sticker. As we sped past, many villagers gathered on the premises of schools and other polling zones awaiting the arrival of INEC officials. My co-travelers were in high spirit. In the convoy were vehicles carrying food items and rental items for hosting guests. The Umanas anticipated a large turn-out of visitors. The canopies, chairs and hired hands were ready for the predictable victory. After all, a wind of change was blowing across the country with the election of General Muhammadu Buhari. The estimation that Akwa Ibom State had never laid her political fortune on the side of the opposition and would therefore vote for the governorship candidate of the APC encouraged this line of thinking.

Buhari’s victory at the 2015 presidential polls was not all Umana hinged his projected victory on. He had steadily built a network of friendship and alliances across the state over time. Having served as a member of the state executive council in various capacities as commissioner and secretary to the state government, he had established himself and dug his feet in. His allegiances were strong. He is believed to be the one who could put up a strong showing for the Hilltop Mansion in Uyo. Denied of the gubernatorial ticket in the PDP, Umana and his supporters moved to the APC, where he met stiff resistance from Senator John Udoedeghe and his supporters who had taken it for granted that the flag of the party was theirs to fly. Udoedeghe had previously contested for the office on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He put up a good showing. After he was denied the office at the polls and in court, he went home to lick his wounds but continued to oil the engine of the party. At the merger of parties that culminated in the emergence of the APC, Udoedeghe was the only Akwa Ibomite who was in the top hierarchy of the APC.

With his connection to the APC national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, Udoedeghe did not see it coming. The tables turned so fast that before he could read the game correctly, APC in Akwa Ibom had become factionalised into the ‘change’ and ‘the real change’ caucus. Udoedeghe was left with the short-end of the stick mainly because his past had come back to haunt him. The senator was accused of being stingy. That his alleged dictatorial attitudes swayed the support of many party faithful to the ‘new comer’, Umana. Thus Umana won the primary. Udoedeghe was furious and refused to be persuaded to toe the path of peace and reconciliation till today. He allegedly continues to this day to hurl dirt at and place hurdles on the way of Umana’s success.

Umana entered the April 11 governorship contest in Akwa Ibom fighting not only his opponents in the other political parties, but the enemy within his party in the person of Udoedeghe. The senator never attended any campaign rally by Umana and his followers were seen openly destroying Umana’s publicity materials and bad mouthing the governorship flag-bearer of their party. Umana’s reputation was tarnished as the one who ruthlessly executed all the heinous policies of the Akpabio administration. Civil servants in the state who are being owed five months salary (at the time of this report) were led to believe that Umana was the architect of their poverty, having persuaded Apabio not to approve certain funds that would have made them richer.

However, Umana remained a formidable force, largely on his steam, particularly on the basis of charity he had dispensed to many in the past. Luckily, for him, he also benefited from deep seated acrimony in the PDP. Founder fathers and elders of the party in the state were treated like strangers by Akpabio. This hostility was further deepened at the PDP primary, 22 aspirants accused Akpabio of narrowing the political space in favour of Udom Emmanuel. Their protest met deaf ears, even at the national secretariat of the party where Akpabio was alleged to have secured the favour of the party national chairman, Adamu Muazu and President Goodluck Jonathan.

Events of the last few months must have played out like a movie in Umana’s mind as he travelled to vote and be voted for. For Umana, the cool appearance must have been a façade. The storm was within. I was sure that there was a cocktail of unanswered questions and puzzles in Umana’s mind. So much had happened and even if it was going to take some time, I was waiting for that moment of weakness when he would lose his cool, but it never came. The only hint of anger was when we went to the INEC office at Ikot Edibon, headquarters of Nsit Ubium council to register his displeasure at not being able to vote because ballot materials had been carted away by hoodlums. His country home in Ndiya is a smaller estate, not the sprawling architectural spectacle in Uyo. People were waiting at the mouth of the road, leading up to his estate. They cheered as the convoy of vehicles approached. The driver in the lead car slowed down. I thought he was under instruction to stop and that Umana would alight. This did not happen. The train of cars moved on, but at a slower speed. Another group of people were waiting at his gate. He greeted them, but did not stop, going inside the house immediately.

Reports continued to come from all over the state. APC agents in the different local governments. The electoral process had begun. At about 10:45 am, Umana turned to no one in particular and said, “this is a repeat of what happened in the presidential elections. There is so much malpractice. How can we continue like this.” No one volunteered a response. A few other persons were also working their phones. The reports that came were not cheerful at all. The distress numbers to summon security agents were not answered. Even at that time, Umana was still left unprotected. All attempts by APC members to report electoral malpractice were frustrated.

The first report of death came at about 11:00am. Listening to the details ignited an alarm in her head. That was the signal Mrs. Florenece Umana was waiting for. She could not stand it anymore. She was still trying to grapple with the news of horrendous treatment meted to their supporters everywhere when it was reported that a relative, Mfon Udofia was arrested for resisting a gang that tried to hijack ballot materials. The report in many instances indicted serving ministers, commissioners and local government chairmen, working in concert with security agents to subvert proper conduct of the elections.

At the Comprehensive Secondary School, Ndiya where he should have voted, Umana was besieged by a crowd of his town folks, Nigerians in Diaspora Election Observers and journalists. Visibly perplexed, the Akwa Ibom State governorship candidate of the APC flung his hand in a gesture of despondency. “You can see for yourselves”, he said, “I am a candidate in this election. This is my polling unit. I am here to vote but all the materials have been taken away. You can see that there is no election. I thought that we have since gone past this stage. It is a disservice to our people who have restricted from going about their normal duties. Later, they will go and announce fake results. You can see that there is no election. Under the circumstance, I am calling for a cancellation of the election.”

Receiving Umana and his team in his office at Ikot Edibon, the INEC Electoral Officer, Mr. Austine Nwana, absolved his employers of complicity. “You can see that I have not slept for two days. We have done what we could. We got agents of the party to examine and confirm the genuineness and that the materials were intact before we distributed them escorted by the police. Once it is out of our hands, it is the responsibility of the security agents to take care of everything including our staff.”

For the first time, Umana was visibly angry. “It will not be well with anyone who comes to collect Akwa Ibom money from the government and turns around to oppress the people. Be careful because you may be inviting a curse on your children and generation unborn. Mr. EO what kind of report are you going to write? Will you say that there was an election here? You know that I am the candidate of the APC and I have not voted. So what would you write? The right thing is for you to say that there was no election.” Umana later lodged a written report and left.

Back at his residence in Uyo, reports of widespread malpractice and violence continued to pour in from all the 31 local governments in Akwa Ibom State. In one of the reports, an INEC staff, Mr. Mike Effiom, texted an SOS before his phone was snatched from him. Effiom and his team were to cover Ikot Obio Ekpe Edemaya 3 in Ikot Abasi.

The Director of Operations and Logistics for the Umana Okon Umana Campaign Organization, Mr. Anietie Ekong, also confirmed reports of violence and malpractice, particularly incidents of no result sheet and hijacking of materials in the entire Ikot Ekpene, Ikono, Ibiono Ibom, Uyo, Eket, Etinan, Nsit Ibom, Oron, Uruan, Onna, Ibesikpo/Asutan, Nsit Atai, Ini, Mbo, Udung Uko and Itu local governments.

Chidinma Nwaugbo, member of the NYSC who served as an INEC adhoc staff at Unit 2, Adiaha Obong Secondary School in Uyo who escaped a mob that invaded her polling unit to snatch electoral materials said that God saved her life. “INEC sent us to go and die. There was no security for us at all. When the thugs came everybody ran away. I was trying to safeguard the bag containing the electoral materials given to me. They beat me seriously and snatched the materials from me.”

At about 10:00pm, Umana and a team of his supporters took a written petition that cataloged incidents of malpractices as recorded by his party’s agents across the state. On the strength of these irregularities, he called for a cancellation of the Governorship and state House of Assembly election in Akwa Ibom State.