From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The heightened apprehension generated by last Saturday’s off-cycle governorship election in the three states of Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi may be gradually ebbing with the conclusion of the poll, but the exercise apparently left in its trail an admixture of joy, sorrow, and spate of violence in the states.

While the indigenes, residents and the country at large heaved sighs of relief for the successful conduct of the election and eventual emergence of winners, it is however lamentable that the poll still had all the same attributes of the typical Nigerian election with the trappings of electoral frauds.

From Imo to Bayelsa and Kogi states, the parties’ candidates, and stakeholders showed obvious signs of desperation in prosecuting the antics and devilish strategies planned to outsmart one another.

There was brazen snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot boxes, destruction of ballot boxes, intimidation of voters, deliberate disenfranchisement of voters, deployment of fully-kitted fake uniform security agents as thugs, high-level voter apathy, use of brute forces by stakeholders, alleged connivance of security agencies to perpetrate election fraud, vote buying and voter inducements among several other electoral malfeasance during the poll.

The elections, according to initial reports, were conducted under a highly volatile atmosphere of palpable insecure environment. Both the victors and villains alike endlessly complained of victimisation and oppression.

There was anxiety among the people in the three states that participated in the poll. Before, during and after the elections, there were violence, political-motivated killings, sporadic shooting of guns and deadly attempts made at the lives of the candidates and their supporters.

Curiously, some party chieftains and violent thugs, in possession of dangerous weapons and volumes of cash to induce voters during the elections, were disgracefully arrested in some of the states, especially in Kogi.

In the perception of many pundits, the actions and inactions of the stakeholders in the three states actually underscored the level of desperation and determination of the political parties, the candidates, their leaders and members to manipulate the poll in their favour.

They truly stopped at nothing in actualising their plans, including unleashing forces, at their disposal, to cow their opponents, instituting and sponsoring litigations to stop the participation of other contestants, and deliberately planting social media rumours on the commission’s refusal to disclose the passwords for the uploading of polling units’ results into the IReV portal.

All the antics were perhaps orchestrated to weaken the chances of their opponents. In reality, the elections were full of intrigues. Electoral officials in possession of sensitive materials were kidnapped, candidates were arrested on election day, and some officials equally suffered boat mishaps, resulting in the loss of electoral materials and other personal effects.

In some of the states, violent crises broke out on the eve of the election while in another state like Imo, managing the crisis with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was a major issue.

In the reckoning of many election observers, last weekend’s governorship election was a reflection or repeat of the tension that dominated the general election earlier conducted this year.

In a nutshell, the journey to the various Government Houses in the three states was dominated by intriguing shenanigans, electoral frauds, litigations, betrayal, intimidation, alignment and realignment.

On the side of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the elections, according to reports, recorded the same multiple challenges of malfunctioning electoral technologies like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and speculations of the commission deliberately refusing to disclose IReV passwords to the relevant personnel to upload polling units results real-time.

Apart from the politicians that have continued to be the fault lines of Nigeria’s election, the compromising security agents, the disturbing insecurity despite the threat analysis in the possession of the security agencies, the game changer, the real-time uploading of the results, the IReV was made inconsequential.

In Imo, for example, apart from the unprecedented apathy recorded in the election, thugs, according to reports, had a field day in perpetrating electoral violence and fraud.

In fact, there were allegations that some uniformed security personnel were used as shields to invade and cart away ballot boxes. Election materials, according to reports, in seven wards of Orsu clan in Orlu local government were allegedly hijacked with the help of police and moved to the palace of a traditional ruler.

It was also alleged that seven ward election materials for Okigwe, were moved to the local government secretariat where no other agent was allowed inside except that of the ruling party.

The situation in Imo was that bad that the state chairman of Labour Party (LP), Calistus Ihejiagwa, raised the alarm of brazen rigging by APC at Akokwa in Ideato North LGA in the house of a chieftain of the ruling party in the state.

Ihejiagwa claimed that they highjacked all the voting materials from the four wards in Arondizuogu clan and thumb-printed the ballot papers, alleging that, “they have about 10 Hilux vehicles loaded with police, army and NSDC. They blocked the roads, gave APC cover to rig the election.”

He also accused Governor Hope Uzodimma of moving around in Ideato North LGA with heavy security men, alleging further that he occupied INEC office in Urualla inside the Council headquarters manipulating the results.

The situation seemed to be worse in Bayelsa State where reports confirmed that suspected thugs of the frontrunner parties, APC and PDP, engaged one another in a gun duel at Famgbe, Yenagoa.

The clash, according to reports, claimed a life with several other persons injured. It also resulted in the stoppage of voting with electoral officials demanding reinforcements of security.

The catalogue of violence also reflected in the abduction and eventual release of an unnamed Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) with sensitive materials while heading to Osisioma in Sagbama LGA.

Although the officer, in marching words with actions, has regained freedom and is doing fine in line with the promise by the Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa Police Command, Bola Alausa, it is not yet clear whether the kidnap was for ransom or for election manipulation.

As if the incidents were not enough chronicles of the bad and ugly sides of the election, the state governor and the PDP governorship candidate, Douye Diri, had raised an alarm in the early hours of the election day over the restriction of supporters of his party from voting in Nembe.

He announced that the PDP wrote an official letter to INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, on the matter, to urge the commission; “to take drastic measures to allow our people to go in there and monitor the voting process. What we call for is a free and fair electoral process. Let accreditation of voters in Nembe be done with BVAS as I have done here.”

However, the situation in Bayelsa was not all about negativity. On the flip side, the unprecedented turnout of the voters and essentially the miraculous rescue of 14 INEC officials involved in the capsized boat conveying them, call for celebration.

The ugly sides of the election seem to be more pronounced in Kogi State. In the opinion of many observers, nothing could be approximated with the singular incident of INEC officials arriving at the polling units with already pre-filled election result sheets in Ogori Magongo and Okehi LGAs.

In the same Kogi, military Special Forces on election duty, reportedly intercepted, arrested and took to an unknown destination, unbranded armoured black Land Cruisers vehicles at Itakpe Junction, en route Okene area of the state.

Again, in Kogi, security operatives, comprising the Nigeria Police, NSCDC, and Nigerian Navy, arrested an APC chieftain in Igàlà Mela/Odolu LGA over money laundering, vote buying, and procession of ammunition, among others.

Miffed by the situation, PDP governorship candidate, Dino Melaye, while expressing disappointment, said: “I was thinking that INEC will use this off-cycle election to redeem its bad image. In Ogori Magongo, election result sheets were pre-filled not by the thugs but by the officials of the commission.

“In many polling units, we saw APC members sharing wrappers to induce voters. There was a high level of vote buying by the unrepentant APC members. There was violence that resulted in the death of a ballot box snatcher in Kogi.”

However, the situation did not come as a surprise to a political leader, who pleaded anonymity in a chat with Daily Sun. “Did you notice that there was not much enthusiasm from Nigerians over the off-cycle elections? They did not expect much because INEC failed many people during the general election.

“Violence is a sore point in this governorship election. But do you expect anything less with the kind of judgments Nigerians got from the Election Tribunals, Appeal Court and even the Supreme Court with the endorsement and upholding of rigging during the general elections?

“The kind of irregularities recorded during this year’s general election and the verdict delivered at various courts to more or less authenticate the malfeasance certainly emboldened the political actors to perpetrate more electoral frauds with the conviction that their actions will not be faulted by anybody, be it INEC or the court of law.

“All the infractions that happened in this governorship election are reflections of our rewards for bad behaviours, especially the type committed during the general election earlier this year. Nothing has actually changed from the previous elections.

“Nigerians celebrated the deployment of technology, especially the promise to use IReV to upload polling unit results real-time, but so long as the commission continues to regard it as a mere notice board that cannot be used to authenticate the election result, Nigeria elections will continue to deteriorate,” a political leader told Daily Sun in confidence.

The electoral commission may have recorded marginal improvements in the areas of logistics and deployment, early arrival of materials, commencement of accreditation and voting, however, election observer, Yiaga Africa, in its preliminary report argued that the election did not totally pass the crucibles of a peaceful poll.

The observer, through its WTV Working Group, Asmau Maikudi, and, Director Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu, in faulting the election, demanded the arrest of the INEC officials, and accomplices in the electoral fraud committed in Kogi State.

Addressing newsmen, Yiaga Africa lamented receiving critical incident reports relating to the pre-filled election results sheets in Ogori Magongo and Okehi LGAs in Kogi State.

“Yiaga Africa calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of all INEC officials and their accomplices involved in this grave electoral fraud and calls for the suspension of elections in the affected wards.

“In addition, a similar report was received from wards 1 and 2 Onuimo LGA in Imo State that police officials refused to deploy due to an issue relating to their allowance. INEC had to deploy its personnel and materials to the polling units unaccompanied by police officers.

“This was, however, addressed later and the Police officers deployed from 10 am to their respective polling units. Yiaga Africa also received a worrying report of manual accreditation of voters in PU 006 (St. Martins Sch., Ejule), Ward 3 Ofu LGA in Kogi State where the polling officials refrained from accrediting voters with the BVAS and manually accredited voters.

“Yiaga Africa calls on INEC to ensure that the votes from polling units where the BVAS was not utilised for accreditation are cancelled in line with the Electoral Act 2022,” it captured the incidences of malfeasance during the elections.

And in matching words with actions, the electoral umpire had strenuously struggled to live up to the expectations of many Nigerians in restoring its previous confidence and lost glory by reacting to the malfeasance, especially the pre-filled election results sheets in Kogi State, suspending the continuation of the election in the area.

INEC, in a statement signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, National Commissioner and member Information and Voter Education Committee, warned that it will follow the audit trail of personnel and materials to ascertain those that may have been complicit in undermining the process.

“The commission has received reports from our officials in Kogi State on incidents of electoral malpractices, particularly the incident of result sheets completed before voting.

“Reports indicate that the incidents occurred in Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene LGAs. The most serious incidents occurred in Ogori/Magongo, affecting nine of 10 Registration Areas. This is entirely unacceptable. Any result not emanating from the commission’s process in the PUs will not be accepted.

“The commission is determined not to reward bad behaviour. Consequently, the election in the nine wards in Ogori/Magongo LGA (Eni, Okibo, Okesi, Ileteju, Aiyeromi, Ugugu, Obinoyin, Obatgben and Oturu) is at this moment suspended,” the statement read.

The commission equally reacted to the report attributed to unknown ‘concerned workers’ of the commission that passwords for result upload were withdrawn from LGA supervisors for use by APO1s in Imo State.

Describing it as untrue, the commission, in a statement signed by Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, wrote: “For the avoidance of doubt, Presiding Officers (POs), not APO1s, are responsible for result upload to the IReV.

“All the passwords have been securely released for use by designated officials in line with the commission’s procedure. The public should expect more of such insinuations before, during and after the elections. They should continue to discountenance them,” Oyekanmi appealed in the statement.

Summing up the exercise, particularly in Imo state, LP candidate, Athan Achonu, declared that democracy is under attack with the refusal of INEC officials to upload results at the polling units.

Decrying what he described as multiple infractions committed during the poll in the state, he said: “In so many places, it is either the INEC staff refused to sign the result or refuse to upload. You saw what happened here. It took the intervention of security operatives, who came here before they started uploading the results.

“The machine they said could not upload suddenly started uploading.  Maybe, if I wasn’t from this area, it wouldn’t have been possible. There are even places in Aboh Mbaise where they did not have result sheets.

“We are winning massively on the ground. They have done everything humanly possible to thwart that but we will not allow that; Imolites will not allow that. I hope INEC is hearing me clearly now. They should declare our results the way they are. They can’t change our results. The APC government should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost the election and they are trying to change the result.

“In Orlu, they moved the entire electoral materials to the house of a traditional ruler. Orsu was worse; it was madness. They were doing cluster voting. They blocked people from coming out to vote and then brought some people with cards they hired from somewhere to vote, claiming they were the people who ran away from home.

“Democracy is under attack but we are resisting it. That is why you see all these people here so that we can have proper democracy and good governance. Of course, INEC must cancel everywhere this madness occurred and order a rerun,” Achonu pleaded.

The report from the operatives of the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps (NSCDC) was even worse. The operative had while lamenting the destruction of its office, explained that an attack allegedly led by one Inspector of Police, called ‘Kill and Bury’ was responsible for it.

They alleged that Governor Hope Uzodinma’s Adviser on Special Duties, Chinasa Nwaneri, reported to have been arrested and flown to Abuja, came in an armoured car and sent Kill and Bury to wreak havoc on the NSCDC office. They also alleged that they even took away the magazine of the AK47 rifle of one of the operatives.

The last may not have been heard about the incidents that dominated the governorship exercise in the three states, the failure of the security agents and the electoral umpire to pass another litmus test in the conduct of elections in Nigeria.