From Ben Dunno, Warri
A leading contender to the chairmanship position of Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Warri Depot Unit, in last Saturday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), Olorogun Ese Kakor (JP), has described the composition of a 30-Man Management Team by the Electoral umpire as alien to the body’s constitution.
While accusing members of 2023 Delta IPMAN Electoral Committee of overseeing the worse electoral process in the history of Warri Depot Unit by jettisoning constitutional provisions of conducting free, fair and credible election for a totally strange Management Team, Kakor dissociated himself from the illegal and fraudulent arrangement.
Consequently, he called on the management of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector both within and outside Delta state, to disregard the members of newly constituted Management Team, headed by Mr. Harry Okenini, as its composition does not exist in IPMAN’s constitution.
Staging a peaceful protest outside the AGM venue with his overwhelming supporters shortly after the inauguration of 30-Man team by Comrade Austin Erhabor, Secretary of Electoral Committee, Kakor, said the umpire had only succeeded in postponing the evil days, as only a credible democratic process can bring about peace in any group or association.
While the aggrieved placard carrying protesters loyal to Olorogun Kakor demanded nothing less than a credible election as enshrined in their constitution, the Chairmanship candidate urged his teeming supporters to remain calm and law abiding even in the face of injustice perpetrated by the electoral body in denying them the right to elect credible leaders to pilot the affairs of the association.
According to Kakor; “What we have witnessed here today is an abuse of IPMAN’s constitution and its rather very unfortunate that the members of the electoral body saddled with the responsibility of conducting a free, fair and credible election for the association have made themselves available to be used in perpetrating injustice against its members”.
“Members of the association, particularly the aged and those who were not strong enough, vibrant men and women left their businesses and important schedules to come out today to elect their officers only to be told by the electoral body that there would no election but a composition of a Management Team that is alien to the constitution of IPMAN”.
“What the members of the electoral body did by the charade we have seen in the IPMAN AGM is fraud borne out of desperation to justify the millions of naira collected from interest forms sold to all candidates contesting the election and because they have decided to compromise, had to accommodate all the candidates in an illegal Management Team that in itself is an aberration to IPMAN’s constitution”.
“Let’s even agreed that there are pending court cases as claimed by the electoral body and they have to respect the rule of law, the only known option available in IPMAN constitution is to constitute a Caretaker Committee with few members that can easily be managed and not an enlarged Management Team that is totally strange to IPMAN electoral guidelines.
“We are therefore calling on the management of NNPCL and other stakeholders to IPMAN to disregard the newly constituted Management Team as it does not exist in IPMAN constitution and hereby remains an illegal and unacceptable body to the association”.
“The only way forward is for democracy to take its course in IPMAN. There’s nothing a credible democratic process. It is through the conduct of a credible election that brought President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor of Delta state, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori to power and as such there can never be an alternative to a credible IPMAN election”, he concluded.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read; NNPCL Disregard Warri Depot Unit Management Team; We Demand A Credible Election; The Fraud Called Management Team, No Election, No Peace In Delta IPMAN, Management Team Is A Scam; Our Constitution Does Not Recognize Management Team, among others.
It would be recalled that the long awaited Delta IPMAN election slated for last Saturday was jettisoned for a 30-man Management Team by the members of 2023 electoral body who cited series of pending court cases as reason for not holding the election and consequently announced a prepared list of 30-Man Management Team with one Harry Okenini, another Chairwomanship candidate as its head.