Electoral Fraud Is Worst Corruption By Onwuasoanya FCC Jones

I totally agree with His Excellency Peter Obi, that there is no worst corruption than electoral fraud and I will add that electoral fraud is a felonious crime against the nation and its people. If you stole the mandate of the people in order to rule them, there is no how you will have the slightest respect for them. You are wont to believe that with the right contacts and the right resources, you can always have your way in power and you can afford to treat the people with disdain.



The talk about anti-corruption would be meaningless if the electoral process is shrouded in fraud. This is because those who won their elections through rigging would want to protect their stolen mandate by every means possible. The Police, Army, EFCC and other agencies that should enable the corruption fight would be compromised. They would be more interested in protecting the principal rather than protecting democracy, the Constitution and the nation. Laws will be bent to serve the interest of those favored by the system and to punish those whom the system dislikes.

I come from Imo State and I participated actively in the election. I know what I am saying when I tell you that the election in Imo State is a complete sham. The system is rigged against certain people and it doesn’t matter what the law says, but what the cabal wants. The INEC in Imo State is a puppet of some powerful forces in Abuja, they go where they ask them to go, and not where the law requires them to go.

Today, Governor Okorocha is being persecuted because he stopped the Returning Officer for Imo West Senatorial District from cheating him of his well-earned victory. The same INEC had announced Jerry Alagbaoso winner of election ten days after collation had ended and candidates were waiting for a rerun. The same INEC has kept mute on the elections in the entire Imo North Senatorial District. No House of Representatives seat has been announced and the Senatorial seat is shrouded in controversy. An Uwajumogu who was trailing at the fourth position was said to have kidnapped the Returning Officer and forced him to announce him winner in an unknown venue, yet, I won’t be surprised if INEC upholds that result.

The Returning Officer for Imo West Senatorial District declared Governor Okorocha winner of the election in the presence of more than 100 members of the Armed Forces, at the lawfully designated collation center, before the agents of different political Parties, yet he went behind in a secret room to allege that he was under duress. INEC did not investigate that claim, police did not corroborate the claim, Army did not say it is true, but INEC has held on to the Certificate of Return of Governor Rochas Okorocha, because some people want to humiliate someone, they want to see if they can break his spirit and get him to negotiate away his freedom and the right of Igbo people. There is obviously an instruction somewhere for Okorocha to be humiliated and some people are celebrating this injustice. The good thing is that one day, it shall be their turn. Isn’t this Nigeria? Injustice is the stew of State, here.

In the same Imo, we have a situation where someone was declared winner of an election when he didn’t meet the Constitutional requirements. It was very obvious, yet, the Returning Officer, possibly acting on instructions from ‘above’ went ahead to declare him winner. Even the purported winner is not celebrating because he is experienced enough in this political business to know that his victory cannot stand.


RIVERS OF CONFUSION AS NIGERIAN ARMY TURNS TO POLITICAL THUGS

In Rivers State, there is a stalemate with the elections. Not because there is a candidate or a political Party that is in close contest with the incumbent governor, Nyesom Wike, or the ruling Party in that State, the PDP, but because some powerful people are hell-bent on asserting their criminal influence in Rivers State. Conduct that election in Rivers State, 300 times over, PDP will sweep every seat and even defeat Amaechi in Ubima.

But the democracy in Rivers has been militarized. Votes smoke out from the barrels of guns and the ballot boxes are dressed in military uniform. A minister of transportation has suddenly turned to a Commander-in-Chief, disgracing our military by turning our soldiers to political thugs. I am surprised the President is looking the other way, while this national embarrassment goes on.

This is not about Party, this is about national interest. In Benue, Kano, Bauchi and even Adamawa, the PDP is making good attempts at unseating the APC, but those who are from those areas and are very close to Aso Rock are not using their contacts to turn our military boys into political thugs, but Amaechi doesn’t seem to care if all the people in Rivers State are killed, just for Wike to be pushed out of power. In this desperation, Nigeria as a nation is put in the wrong light before the world.

This is not about Nyesom Wike, this is about the lives of millions of Rivers people, it is about the survival of our democracy, it is about the image of our nation, it is also about the reputation of our President. No matter, how we look at it, the buck stops on the President’s desk. If he doesn’t know about the deployment of these soldiers, then, it is unfortunate and it is not a palatable excuse for a Commander-in-Chief. It is close to a month, and Rivers election is still shrouded in confusion because of the ambition of one man to own the State.

The world must rise in condemnation of what is happening in Rivers State. If Amaechi succeeds in Rivers State, then, such impunity may be exported to your own State tomorrow. A situation where a former governor, who is now an ordinary minister without any Constitutional immunity and commanding powers, would visit his State with mayhem because he wants to prove to the incumbent governor that he is more powerful and more connected, should be condemned by every well meaning Nigerian, no matter, our partisan interests. If you cannot remove a governor through the ballots, then, forget it and go home and restrategize for the next election.