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Emeka Umeagbalasi is the Board Chairman of International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety). He is a civil rights activist who is involved in research and data driven advocacy for good governance and upholding of true democracy ethos.
In this interview with ALOYSIUS ATTAH, he talks on issues affecting the upcoming governorship election in Imo State.
You recently held a press conference in conjunction with other civil rights activists on the Imo State governorship election. Why the interest on Imo this time?
Over the years, we have remained resolute and consistent in our activities towards a better society anchored on true democracy, rule of law and respect for the citizen’s rights, among others. Our pre-election and post-election advocacy has been consistent since the 2003 general elections when I was the Chairman of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Anambra State branch. Now we are focusing on Imo State Governorship Poll and the question we are asking is whether INEC is truly organising free, fair, secured and credible election in that state or planning to harvest and write results for the incumbent? We are tempted to assume that harvesting and writing of results is cooking in Imo. The available pieces of evidence and realities on the ground have continued to strongly indicate that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is at it again in Imo State which will be having a crucial governorship election on November 11, 2023. From every indication, it is difficult for us at Intersociety and SBCDHROs to be convinced that the commission is genuinely organizing free, fair, secured and credible governorship election for the long suffering and peace loving people of Imo State. Instead, it is easily convincing and may likely to be correct to say that Nigeria’s INEC is planning to ‘harvest and write results’ for the incumbent in the State. The above is more so when it must not be hurriedly forgotten that the January 14, 2020 Nigeria’s Supreme Court verdict that installed Hope Uzodinma as ‘Imo Governor’ remotely originated from ‘harvested results’ from 311 polling units in the state where voting either did not take place or was cancelled as a result of widespread violence and gross malpractices in the State’s April 2019 governorship election.
From your calculations, how many votes do you think the winner of Imo governorship poll will garner?
The true winner of Imo governorship poll will garner between 90,000 and 130,000 votes as maximum. It is not out of place for us to express deep fears that another round of “result harvesting and writing” is cooking in Imo. Nigerians and other international democracy watchers will not be surprised to see the allocation of 500,000 to one million (dead) votes as “total valid and lawful votes scored by the incumbent…winning a landslide”. However, and truly speaking; going by several investigations done by Intersociety and the realities on the ground in Imo State, the true winner of the State’s Nov 11, 2023 governorship poll, in an atmosphere of “one-man-one-vote contest”, will not score more than 90,000 to 130,000 (living) votes. This will be out of possibly total lawful votes cast of not more than 300,000. This projection was arrived at after putting into consideration the fears; chaos and bloodletting that have gripped the state since January 2021 in which more than half of the state’s 27 local government areas are deeply affected and 65 per cent or 1.8 million (out of the state’s 2.4m PVC holders) of the registered voting population uprooted and forced out of their voting areas; leaving the state with only 600,000 eligible voters, out of which 300,000 may maximally vote.
But if perhaps the results should be manipulated, what should we expect?
Expect 500,000 “Results” and above for the fake winner if ‘harvested and written” unless extreme lawful measures are timely taken, otherwise, Nigerians and other international democracy watchers should expect the return of the incumbent as “the winner” who polled “500,000 to one million votes.” Such declaration, if made by INEC, is expressly expected to have emanated from “harvested and written results”. This is also because it is an act of impossibility for the true and credible winner of the Nov 11, 2023 Imo guber poll to even score “160,000 votes and above”; not to talk of garnering 500,000 to one million votes. Apart from over half of Imo State’s 27 Local Government Areas being adversely affected by the ongoing mass murders and destructions, estimated 1.8m of the State’s 2.4m PVC holders have been uprooted and forced out of their original voting locations and not less than half of the remaining 600,000 PVC holders terrified and forced indoors. The Nov 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election is a clear case in point, where Prof Charles Soludo of APGA emerged as the winner with 112, 229 votes out of total lawful votes cast of 249, 631; representing 10.12 per cent of the State’s registered PVC holders which stood at 2, 466, 638. The acutely poor voters’ turnout during the Anambra State’s Nov 6, 2021 governorship poll was as a result of politically motivated insecurity and other unsafe conditions which are three times lower than that of the present Imo State. The State of Imo also has lower number of registered PVC holders with 2,419, 922 as against Anambra’s 2, 4661, 638 as well as 4,758 polling units and 305 electoral wards as against Anambra’s 5,720 polling units and 326 electoral wards. INEC has also announced that out of Imo’s 4,758 polling units, “it will not conduct election in 38 polling units”. The exact names and locations of the 38 polling units have remained publicly unknown.
But do you really have any special or vested interest in that Imo election?
Our priceless interest in Imo State is purely borne out of the desire to have decency and sanctity of the ballot box restored and Imo voters and their property secured and protected again in the state after the January 14, 2020 Nigeria’s Supreme Court verdict that installed Hope Uzodinma as governor. To this end, Imo voters must be protected and allowed to freely vote for governorship candidates of their choice on Nov 11, 2023 and their ‘living votes’ and property protected. Apart from ensuring their security and safety, the voting routes and environments and their residences and sensitive voting materials including result sheets (.i.e. FormEC8As) must also be secured, and subversive elements within the security forces, including deployed soldiers, police crack squads and ‘Ebubeagu killer militias’ and all armed non-state criminal entities stopped from wreacking more havoc. The restoration of sanctity of the ballot box in Imo is capable of ending the ongoing mass murders and property destructions that have ravaged the state since January 2021-leading to unlawful killing by drafted security forces and armed non state actors of combined total of over 2000 unarmed and defenceless citizens and wanton destruction of more than 1,600 civilian houses and tens of thousands of other “non military necessity” property. For more details, see Intersociety’s Special Investigative Report (Imo Mass Murders and Destructions), issued on May 21, 2023 and another: Who Is Killing Who Outside The Law In Igbo Land, issued on August 28, 2023:
Your organisation is also kicking against different security and police conferences hosted in Imo recently?
Yes, it is our position that the so called “Security and Police Conferences” in Imo constitutes a threat to the independence of the Nov 11 poll. The choice of Owerri-Imo State for the South-East Govs’ Security and Economic Summit” held on September 28 and 29, 2023 and the “Senior Police Officers Conference” held on Oct 30-Nov 1, 2023 is politically motivated and a clear attempt to undermine the independence, impartiality and credibility of the Nov 11 governorship election in the state. The two events should have been taken to a neutral capital city or state and not Imo State, a governorship election state. The choice of Imo State to host the two events is also considered to be a waste of the earned and the borrowed public funds belonging to long suffering and uprooted citizens of the state and a clear case of political sponsorship geared towards gathering and cornering undue political favour and advantage for the incumbent. The government of Imo State’s financial commitments in the two events; drawn from the state public treasury are capable of turning the operational attention and undue sympathies of the country’s security chiefs into unduly favouring the incumbent in the Nov 11 poll and encouraging Election Day partisanship including aiding and abetting poll rigging.
Is it right to say that failure to act on your letters by the security chiefs might have ignited your present fears of compromising the election results?
You are very correct. The failure by eight recipients of “Our Public Interest Letters” on Nov 11, 2023 Governorship Poll: INEC Chair, IGP, PSC Chair, DG-SSS, Chief of Army Staff, NSA, Minister of Interior and Chief of Defence Staff; expeditiously and judiciously act on the letters has ignited and thickened our fears of possible “harvesting and writing” of Imo governorship results in favour of the Incumbent. Our letters are so facts-laden, tempting and irresistible. For timely receiving our well-researched and facts-laden letters and refusing to expeditiously and judiciously act on them, we are left with no option than to conclude that the eight critical public institutions and core stakeholders are Imo 2023 Governorship poll-rigging friendly. We publicly challenge them to prove us wrong by acting on the letters bearing in mind that time is of extreme essence.
What steps do you think the stakeholders in the Imo election project should take to ensure a credible poll?
There are 14 major steps Imo governorship state candidates and their parties must take in that regard. Insist that INEC must be impartial and non-partisan in posting of EOs, AEOs, Supervisors, etc and their deployment to LGAs, wards and polling units. Deploy accredited trained and uncompromised agents to polling units across Imo State especially the INEC designated 4,720 POs and 305 electoral wards and 27 Local Government Areas pay much attention to physical component of the polling units’ result sheets or ‘FormEC8As’ than electronic results transmission component and insist on their mandatory availability at all the designated polling units on Election Day. Ensure that original results are duly tabulated and entered on polling units’ FormEC8As and duly signed by all the accredited party agents and designated security personnel and INEC accredited others. Ensure that duly signed polling units’ FormEC8As are physically gathered and duly submitted and stored accordingly. Reject results that are not duly entered on valid polling units’ FormEC8As and voting and results that are not accompanied with blank FormEC8As before voting. Ensure that electronically uploaded results are in tandem with those duly entered on polling units’ FormEC8As .Strictly monitor all the polling units where election did not take place or was cancelled as a result of widespread violence or gross malpractices so as to thwart or scuttle post poll or poll day secret harvesting and writing of results from them.
Monitor the movements around Owerri Government House and its annexes so as to scuttle possible ‘writing or harvesting’ of fake results through crooked and criminal INEC officials. Insist that INEC must publicly disclose the names and locations of those polling units where election will not take place or where results were cancelled as a result of widespread violence or gross malpractices. Make maximum use of press conferences and written representations to ensure that all of the above are generally checkmated and exposed including riggers, rigging and its aiders and abettors. They must shun vote-buying, voter intimidation and suppression and Election Day violence. They must insist on lawful and popular voting and generation of credible results and totally reject “dead and robotic votes or results”. They must publicly expose corrupt and compromised INEC officials, whether substantive or ad hoc; and senior security officers and their field personnel undermining the Nov 11, 2023 governorship poll.
