Abia Guber and the Raging Controversy
According to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), no winner has yet emerged in the April 11, 2015 governorship election held in Abia State. In the words of the state Returning Officer for the election Prof. Benjamin Ozumba while announcing results from the polls after collation in the 17 local government councils of the state, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu scored a total of 248,459 far ahead of his closest rival Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who secured 165,406 votes.
However, the returning officer could not declare the candidate with the highest votes winner on Monday April 13, 2015 because of reports from electoral officers in about nine out of the 17 councils which showed that elections failed to hold in some polling booths in a total of 49 out of the 184 political wards in the state. Prof. Ozumba reeled out the total number of registered voters in the affected areas to be above the margin of win by the PDP candidate.
Justifying his action by reference to the provisions of the electoral Act, Ozumba stated that “where the margin of win in an election is not in excess of the number of registered voters in areas where elections did not hold, no winner is declared until a rerun is held in the affected areas”. Thus making the Abia governorship polls inconclusive. As far as the Abia governorship election was concerned, a winner in the person of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has emerged just that the crown has not yet been bestowed. And this must come with time.
Surprisingly, the decision of the commission has been subject of various interpretations by the rival All Progressives Grand Alliance which went to town with an entirely different story that the result of the governorship election in Abia has been cancelled. The supporters of Alex Otti jumped into wild jubilations. Even Channels Television that had three reporters assigned to Umuahia had scrolled about the same cancellation even when the Returning Officer made his pronouncement in English Language. Well, if such illusion will help to tame their violent tendencies, let them continue to delight and savor it.
Nothing could sound more preposterous than a people deceiving themselves and getting the elixir of victory from unfounded and unproductive rumour mills. But some of us were not really surprised. We saw the self- deceit at work again when he told his group and they believed him that he had influenced INEC chairman to reject Abia Senatorial election and it had been done. Pity! Who knows what he will be telling them now that his political tormentor T. A. Orji alongside others have been issued with valid certificate of return.
What a world! He did not want a contest yet he schemed to have a conquest. When news filtered that Ikpeazu was coasting home to victory, Otti allegedly instigated a protest to the Abia State office of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC even without any of his children at sight. But for the presence of security operatives who were on ground, it would have been a bloody exchange with the teeming supporters of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.
While the group outside was at their duty post, one Ahamdi Nweke who said he was the APGA state agent was acting another script inside the INEC collation room. Either by default or design Nweke took serious delight in casting aspersions and invectives on the INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, the State Resident Electoral Commission Prof. Selina Oko, the Returning Officer Prof. Benjamin Ozumba, the Commissioner of Police as well as the Director of State Security Service. He did not spare any. Each time a local government result is called, he will spring to his feet, condemn the electoral officers as having rigged the said local government in favour of the PDP, abuse the security agencies of conniving to rig the election. Yet his party won in some of the LGAs he had alleged was rigged by the PDP. His frequent hysteria immediately earned him the nickname “Orubebe”.
The height of it was when he snatched and attempted to tear the result sheet from Obingwa right in front of all the security chiefs in the state. Every person was branded a rogue including the journalists. The only honest men were the APGA apostles that included Ken Ahia, Chima Onyekwere, Macdonald Uba and others card-carrying APGA members who all impersonated as International Observers but were shamelessly cheering Nweke to infamy.
It is quite an irony that a candidate who had bragged of follower-ship would be the one attempting to use every means possible to disrupt an electoral process. Even in areas where he got an edge over his rival, such was obtained by coercion and use of brute force and intimidation which still did not amount to any advantage. Today, he is the underdog hanging on to a sinking straw for survival. But if there be any honour in him, the best for Otti would be to throw in the towel because Abia is a foreclosed case against his ambition.
No magic can favour him and this is probably why he is planning to disrupt the rerun. He should for once be man enough to know that the game is up and in the spirit of the unprecedented example set by the President Goodluck Jonathan, swallow his pride and do the needful by accepting defeat. This is the only way he can save the state and his supporters the orgy of violence being unleashed on innocent citizens since his vaulting ambition took a better part of him. For sure he is up against a determined people who are no longer willing to hold the lantern for you and watch you rape their mothers. It is a movement and any obstruction will be crushed.
Emereuwa writes from Umuahia.