Leadership (Abuja)
George Agba
23 April 2008
analysis
Abuja — The FCT re-run election into the National Assembly was described as a sham owing to the sharp practices that were said to characterise it. LEADERSHIP's GEORGE AGBA examines some of the complaints of the opposition parties who felt cheated out in the exercise that was shifted by one day to give victory to the ruling PDP in the nation's capital.
Barely three weeks after the Federal Capital Territory re-run poll for elective offices into the National Assembly, the alleged irregularities that constituted part of the exercise has continued to trail the purported actors of the ballot snuffing and smuggling of other voting materials. Aggrieved candidates and supporters of other political parties have continued to whack the FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Moddibo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with incisive vituperations for raking democracy in the nation's capital.
It would be intersting to note how one of these disgruntled supporters of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) had metaphorically passed on the message when he was confronted with this gregarious reporter. I had demanded to know why all the protests that prompted their coming out enmasse that Monday afternoon. He simply stared at me in the face and said "FCT minister, Moddibo is playing guiter."
Modibbo playing guitar; there must be a reason inside it! When I asked him for the reason, he said PDP was dancing for the FCT minister. Why must the ruling party dance for Moddibo? I asked. He said there is a rigging melody in the air and whoever must have composed that song should be a rigging maestro.
It was at this point that my friend saved me from drowing in the sea of unraveling the parable of the guitar playing minister and dancing PDP. He said, "haven't you grabbed the gist by now that the PDP is at it again? We are rejecting the by-election conducted yesterday because Moddibo and Adudu paid a visit to the FCT INEC office in Area 10 and by the time they left, ballot boxes and papers were missing".
The re-run poll was however, shifted to the next day being Sunday. After the said election, Sidi Ali of the PDP emerged winner of the FCT senatorial seat, while Philip Adudu of the same PDP won the AMAC/Bwari federal constituency election into the House of Representatives.
But many believe that this re-run poll goes into the record as the most fraudulent. The thinking is that for INEC to have claimed that the PDP scored 46,736 votes to defeat ANPP's Senator Jibrin Wowo who is generally considered as a grassroot man in the FCT cast a spell in the eyes of even an ordinary man. The thing that would make an electorate that had earlier thrown its weight of support on a candidate in a poll that is not up to a year since it was conducted, to vote otherwise against the dame candidate in a re-run of the poll must certainly be beyond the confines of human comprehension.
Beside, there is a strong reason why Moddibo's visit to INEC office at a very unholy hour of the night during such moment of highest tension should not be taken as mere speculation or coincidence. The contention by political observers is that the election petitions tribunal that voided senator Wowo's election in April 2007 did no nullify the poll because it was marred by irregularities. The judge did not say the election was rigged. The court only held that the conduct of the poll was a nullity because INEC excluded the name of the progressive Action Congress (PAC) candidate and the party's logo from the ballot papers used for the election.
While castigating the electoral body for not providing a level playing ground for all the candidates in the poll, Justice Josephine Tukur who led the tribunal panel, warned that INEC should not be allowed to turn elections into an animal farm where some animals are more equal than others. With Wowo's election cancelled on grounds of unlawful exclusion of a candidate, it is obvious that he had won on a clean slate especially, when it was not the excluded candidate, Aliyu Ndako of the PAC that was said to have won the re-run poll which was ordered by the tribunal, so how come he lost the confidence and popularity the FCT voters had on him so soon?
There are times when visit at night could be considered healthy. Even the biblical Nicodemous was said to have visited Jesus Christ by night. The atmosphere was quite healthy as the Jew only approached the Lord's house to seek clarification on certain life pondering questions. But could Moddibo's visit to the commission's office at the wee hours of Saturday April 5, 2008 said to be normal? Even the Lord Jesus has asked Christains to be on the alert because his second coming might be like a thief in the might. His mission is to fulfil his promise of taking his people. If the FCT minister actually went to the commission's office, what was his missions? These are the questions among others that are fired from different quarters and one could see them flying in the air like bullets.
Although, the FCT commissioner of police, Mr. John Haruna, had refused report that he confirmed Moddibo's presence at the area office of INEC, the minister appears to be on the cross. Senator Wowo has vowed to take the matter to the tribunal where most of these questions will be answered. He expressed disappointment with what happened during the re-run election but however urged his supporters to remain calm and law abiding until tribunal decides.
PAC Chairman, Chief Agadaenyi Charles Nwodo, had also chided the FCT minister while describing his strange visit to INEC as suggestive. He said "We are shocked to hear that Moddibo visited INEC Area 10 Garki office like Nicodemous in the midnight at a critical time. We wonder what happened after that visit.
The next morning it was announced that INEC was burgled leading to the shifting AMAC election to the next day.
"Even the security agencies drafted to election areas perpetrated fraud to the extent that ballot papers were handled by unknown men at the watchful eyes of the security men. In some quarters it was alleged that thieves went and burgled the materials."
It was also gathered that the minister had read the riot act to tradictional rulers in the six area councils in a meeting held at the Kwali council secretariat prior to the re-run poll. He was said to have threatened to sack them should they fail to deliver their wards to the PDP. Knowing fully well that these men are the determining factor in the people's choice when it comes to politics, Moddibo jolted into reasonable action which perhaps may have been the reason why the poll was said to appear like a war front.
An agent of the ANPP noted that there were gross manipulation of election materials just as the late arrival of voting materials led to low turnout of voters. The few persons who came out to vote were said to have deserted the polling stations due to exhaustion after waiting patiently under the heat of the mid-day sun. One would then ask where the votes accorded the PDP and other parties came from when it was reported widely that there was low turn out of voters.
Wowo and his party, ANPP, believe that the postponement of the poll due to allegation that ballot papers were missing was a flimsy reason. They consider this as part of the tricks employed by the PDP to hijack the voting machinery because the postponement was one without adequate notice for the candidates and their supporters as most of them, the faithful worshipers were in church that Sunday morning worshiping God in Spirit and in truth.
Funny enough while Wowo and his party are busy raising their army of opposition to challenge what they describe as massive fraud, some political parties have deemed it necessary to align themselves with the winning team. Report has it that some lily livered and feeble minded Sunday school teachers constituting parties like the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), All progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Better Nigeria Peoples Party (BNPP) paid a solidarity visit to the winner of AMAC/Bwari federal constituency poll, Hon. Aduda.
Apart from asking him to work efficiently towards bettering the lot of the electorate, they were said to have endorsed the results of the FCT re-run election.
However, Wowo and the ANPP are not hopeless. With the tribunals doing very excellent jobs in the country by ensuring that justice prevails in the various petitions before them, he may get the re-run election nullified. But if he fails, there is still another battle ahead in the next general election come 2011. The electorate which appears to be psychologically battered by disenfranchisement and robbing of its voting power will certainly go the breadth and length of all circumstances to the next poll in respect to deciding who becomes their leader.
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