Follow Us on Google
When hope goes up in smoke
Following the parody of the gubernatorial election, Imo State it seems that muffled sounds of celebration are heard only in the home of the wicked. Elsewhere, is draped in black. Most residents wear furrows of pain and consternation on their faces. The grief is palpable one could even touch it. Their hopes for rescue have gone up in smoke. Chibuikem Diala captures it in this sorrowful dirge.
By Chibuikem Diala
Imo State witnessed the biggest electoral heist in its history on Saturday, November 11, 2023. It was a deluge of evil perpetrated against Imo people.
Instead of the election the INEC had promised Imolites, we experienced an audacious, state-sponsored electoral holocaust on a people seeking freedom, justice and the right to choose. Rather than a level playing ground, the people were sold brigandage, massive vote buying, overvoting, and reckless disregard for the Electoral Act and its procedures.
Imo people woke up on Election Day to go to the polls to elect the candidate of their choice. Little did they know that corrupt elements in INEC, security agencies, and the APC government had already compromised the election despite the plethora of promises by the electoral umpire that the Imo election would be free and fair.
From Orlu to Owerri to Okigwe, despicable stories of mass rigging, ballot box snatching, bypass of BVAS, security breaches, and attack on party agents rent the air, sending shivers to the voting public, Nigerians and the international community.
The desperation and impunity to compromise the process and rape the people’s will was brazen in every inch of the Imo homeland. It seemed that the governor was in a hurry to not just hijack the process and be declared winner but also to hurriedly legitimise his governorship, which he has struggled with as “Supreme Court governor”.
For nearly four years, Uzodimma has struggled with a body image challenge after being dubbed “Supreme Court” governor – a name gallantly given to him by one of his close aides. So, to him, this governorship was a “do-or-die” affair to gain the identity of an ‘elected’ governor, and was ready to do anything to be declared the ‘winner’.
The IREV reveals shocking data: In Nkwere LGA Umudiumuwala Hall 004; the number of accredited voters is 66. The result posted on the IREV is 262. While In Oguta LGA, Umunwenwe Square – accredited voters – 41. Votes submitted for APC, 462.
Ndiuloukwu/Umuowere II, accredited, 62, submitted – APC – 670; Ndiuloukwu Umuowere II, accredited – 57, submitted – 841 (APC – 811); Umuowere Square (16/17/05/001), accredited -76 – total submitted, APC – 675, PDP – 241; LP- 18.
In Umulolo Ward, Okigwe LGA (Amaudo Square Ikaeze) Accreditation – 0, Total uploaded – 578 for APC; Ndiakunwata Vill Hall Accreditation – 0, APC- 389; while Umuokpara Town Hall Accreditation 0; APC – 501, LP 24.
In various places, ballot papers and electoral materials were hijacked, diverted to unapproved places, thumb-printed, and uploaded as election results.
In one of such incidents in Orlu, voting materials were allegedly hijacked with the help of policemen and moved to the palace of a prominent traditional ruler in the Amaifeke area.
In Okigwe LGA where the APC scored the highest number of allocated votes, accreditation and election did not hold in most of the polling units. Only a common criminal will justify the reckless allocation of votes in Okigwe LGA where no results sheet was made available and final results allegedly written at Okigwe Police Station; a scurrilous act backed by the senator representing the zone in the National Assembly.
In Ehime, Ikeduru, Ideato, Ahiazu Mbaise, Obowo, and Owerri North, among other LGAs, snatched ballot boxes were pictured in the homes of self-appointed kingmakers and leaders.
Obowo is another big shame. The rigging style by Hon. Chike Okafor and his accomplices was novel. They influenced the Polling Officers and manipulated the agents, and wrote results on the duplicate copy of the results sheet instead of the master copy. Then, they got the compromised agents to sign, keeping back the master copy to write the number of votes they chose and uploaded.
In Amakohia Ikeduru, a policeman was caught while trying to snatch ballot boxes and result sheets on the instruction of APC. He was beaten to a pulp and paraded. The same happened in Emekuku Ward 1 Collation Centre where police officers came in a van, teargassed, and kidnapped the INEC ad hoc staff alongside the ballot box and result sheets.
Recall that before the election, anyone identified as a barrier was brutally shoved aside. The ugly experiences of NLC president, Joe Ajaero; Senator Athan Achonu who was attacked at Obibiezena where his convoy was blocked by thugs backed by policemen from Tiger Base, as well as the beating up of Barr. Callistus Ihejiagwa, the Imo State Labour Party Chairman/State Collation Agent of the party, etc, in the hands of known thugs and lackeys of this government should not be forgotten in a hurry.
Ihejiagwa was humiliated and beaten like a common criminal and thrown out of the State Collation Centre in the full glare of the INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, security agents, and the media. He was thereafter arrested for objecting to the criminality that happened in Orsu LGA where an illegal cluster voting took place.
The role of Prof. Fasina is best described as shameful and ‘un-professorial’. Rather than consider the objections of the collation agents, he overtly incited thugs against Ihejiagwa and allowed them to brutalise him in the presence of security agents.
Ihejiagwa’s crime was questioning the number of votes from Orsu LGA – the deserted local government area – that produced 18, 000 votes. As shown on cable TV, it was at this point that thugs allegedly loyal to Chief C.O.C Akaolisa, SAN, Attorney General of Imo State/APC State Collation Agent, pounced on the LP agent.
Ihejiagwa clearly stated that Akaolisa, a long-time ally of the governor, “invited the thugs that beat me up and almost killed me for speaking the truth about the sham cluster election in Orsu”.
Akaolisa claimed that he hired buses from Owerri to convey 18,000 persons to a venue that won’t accommodate 5,000 people. Let’s do some calculations. It would take a total of 1000 buses (18-seater) to convey 18, 000 Orsu people from Owerri to Orsu. How did Akaolisa move 1,000 buses on an election morning with all the security restrictions?
Another important question is this – on whose directive was the cluster voting done – even after INEC deceived Imolites that the election would be held in all polling units except the ones published? Moreover, why is it that only APC and the ‘Orsu Diaspora’ were made aware of the cluster voting?
This is indeed a confirmation of the incestuous relationship between Governor Uzodimma’s government, INEC, and security agencies. Even video evidence showed concerned Imolites recording Akaolisa, allegedly giving bribes to a security officer to supervise this volcano-like electoral fraud in Orlu Zone.
The Imo State election was a well-orchestrated scam, deployed and delivered by the very people the society respects and dignifies. They think they won the opposition, but unfortunately, they committed electoral genocide against the people, and the land is waiting to be paid back in a similar proportion. Like every tyrant-induced genocide, the end is usually orchestrated by divine forces.
Ndi Imo, could the audacity of hope on November 11 be the emergence of Hitler of our time or the modern Attila the Hun (A.D. 434-453) a cruel leader known as “The Scourge of God?” Or could we be faced with the likes of Caligula, a Roman emperor who ruled for only four years, from A.D. 37 to 41? In those years, he forced political rivals to commit suicide, making senators run in front of his chariot for miles, throwing spectators into the arena to be killed by animals.
The truth is that this illegality should not be allowed to stand because the totality of it portends an ill wind that bears no good to the state and its people. Systems that support oppression like what we are experiencing in Imo State oftentimes witness a revolt from within.
Ndi Imo, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. Jeremiah 31:29b.
• Chibuikem Diala is a grieving Imolite
