Iwu must face trial, says Soyinka
From John-Abba Ogbodo (Abuja), Ifedayo Sayo (Ado-Ekiti) and Ajibola Amzat (Lagos)
THE cloud of controversy continues to thicken over the Ekiti re-run polls with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling for the deployment of troops to the state for the conclusion of the polls while the Action Congress (AC) insists that indeed the election is over and the results should be announced by no other than the state electoral commissioner, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo.
The AC is also alleging that the PDP is plotting to frame up some of its leaders in a phantom murder attempt. And Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has declared the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, as the major culprit in the whole saga and therefore called for his trial.
Addressing a press conference at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja yesterday, the national publicity secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, said the conduct of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) over last Saturday's re-run election in the state showed her instability of character and so she should not be allowed to remain in Ekiti State any longer. "On the issue of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, the conduct of Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo leaves much to be desired. She has demonstrated a clear instability of character, which has raised fundamental questions on her integrity and impartiality. Her decision to abandon her responsibility and her volte face 24 hours later, clearly shows she cannot be trusted to be a fair umpire in the Ekiti State governorship re-run elections. Mrs. Adebayo owes the nation an explanation as to her where about during the 48 hours of her purported resignation and the reasons for her action.
"We therefore call on the authorities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately restore the confidence of all parties in the electoral system by redeploying Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo from Ekiti State. The situation in Ekiti State can only be resolved by the appointment of a new and unbiased Resident Electoral Commissioner. We have no confidence in the ability of Mrs. Adebayo to honourably conclude this exercise.
"As we demonstrated in this statement, we wish to once more reiterate here that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not in any doubt of our pre eminence in Ekiti State and will never entertain any fears of losing that state to anybody. We therefore see no reason why any group would want to disrupt the peace of the state when the people are clearly not with them," he said.
The party said events of the last one week in the state had unfolded the desperation of the Action Congress (AC) reiterating that Ekiti remains largely a PDP state.
"Events in the past few days surrounding the governorship re-run elections in Ekiti State have clearly exposed the level of ignorance, mischief and crass opportunism among some politicians in the state and their patrons. In their desperate and blind ambition to take over the Government House in Ekiti at all costs, they deliberately ignore historical facts, consciously distort reality and put truth on its head, all aimed at putting wool over the faces of Nigerians on the true character of Ekiti Politics and why they are destined to fail in their ignoble project. It is worthy of note that our great party scored the highest number of votes in this local government in the 2007 gubernatorial election."
He continued: "From this background, it is against common sense to suggest that a Local Government which has remained a stronghold of the PDP for over a decade and which has got a lot to show for this, will suddenly vote against the party. Therefore, the over 15,000 votes cast in favour of the PDP cannot and should not be a surprise, except to those opposed to reason. It rather reaffirms the popularity of the party among the people. It is the same trend that explains the victory of AC in Aiyetoro Ward of the Ido-Osi Local Government Area, where the former Secretary to the State Government, Evangelist Alofe, who left the party comes from."
The PDP image-maker said the opposition does not want election to take place in Oye because it is another stronghold of the party.
"Even though the AC candidate, Dr. Fayemi comes from this Local Government Area, he is certainly not from Oye Township comprising of the two wards. He comes from a ward consisting of a cluster of three tiny villages whose elections were not challenged at the tribunal and where there would be no voting in the re-run election. There is no way in a free and fair election the PDP will not win in the two wards of Oye. No wonder therefore the AC is bent on disrupting the electoral process in these two wards", he said.
He said the party believes in the electoral reform of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and that was why it embarked on serious campaign in Ekiti to sell Oni to the electorate adding that the results of the re-run election released so far favoured Oni.
'The election came and the people of Ekiti amply demonstrated their preference for the candidate of our party, Engr. Segun Oni. However, those who must win Ekiti by hook or crook, the enemies of democracy, are living up to their earlier threat to make the state ungovernable if they lose. But the good people of Nigeria will not allow them to disenfranchise the people of Ekiti State nor will the PDP allow them derail our nascent democracy", he stated.
He called on the people of the state to vote for Oni in the remaining re-run.
Meanwhile, Oni and some party elders from the state were at the national secretariat of the party where they conferred with the national chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor presiding.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the chairman of Ekiti State chapter of the party, Bola Olu-Ojo , said they were in Abuja to brief the chairman of PDP on the development in the state. Olu-Ojo said the party in the state would want military presence during the last round of the election in Oye because of the general insecurity in the state.
"The efforts of the Police should be complemented by the military because of the insecurity in the state," he said, stressing "INEC has called for improved security in the state,"
He said the violence that led to the postponement of the election was due to the overbearing attitude of the opposition. Both senators Femi Kila and Ayo Arise denied involvement in the crisis. They said the reports that they haboured thugs and a pump action gun was found with them were not correct.
The AC meanwhile has alleged plans by agents of the PDP to frame some of its top leaders over a phantom murder attempt in the state.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the plan involved arming some people with AK47 rifles and then alerting the Police to arrest them, after which they will be made to confess that they were armed by some AC top shots to kill former Governor Segun Oni and two senators from Ekiti.
"If anyone is caught with guns or any weapon in Ekiti or anywhere at all for whatever reason, the AC has no hand in it. We are a peaceful party and will not engage in any act of violence,'' it said.
The AC said the plan was being mooted out of desperation by the PDP, which has now seen the handwriting on the wall that it has indeed lost Ekiti State.
"For the PDP, the game is up in Ekiti. All lawful and legal means to capture Ekiti at all cost by the PDP have been blocked. The party has subsequently resorted to sinister moves to checkmate the AC and thwart the will of the people of Ekiti,'' the party said.
The AC wondered why the PDP was so desperate to capture Ekiti State, especially after the party failed to lift the standard of living of the people of the state for almost two years that the former governor, Segun Oni, presided.
The party also insisted that the re-run has been concluded and the state REC should immediately announce the results.
"We welcome the decision of the REC, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo, to rescind her resignation. This is exactly what we had called for. But she must now go back and announce the results in accordance with her conscience and on the basis of the rerun held on April 25, because the election has been concluded,'' the party said in a statement issued by Mohammed.
"We in the AC will not be part of any re-run of the re-run being planned by INEC in Oye, because the election there stands cancelled on the basis of the violence perpetrated by the PDP on election day.
"Also, the results of the three wards in Ido-Osi, which were properly collated, are acceptable to us. But the results of the eight wards in the local government, which were clandestinely collated in a non-INEC designated venue, stand nullified,'' the party said.
Justifying the call on the REC to announce the results, the AC said with the re-run concluded in eight out of 10 local governments, the election has satisfied the constitutional requirement that a candidate must win at least one-quarter of total votes cast in two-thirds of the local governments in the state.
"If the eight local governments where election has been concluded in the re-run are added to the six already decided, that means election has been concluded in 14 out of 16 local governments. This has more than satisfied the Constitutional stipulation,'' it said.
AC also said on the basis of precedence, the REC is on a solid ground, morally and legally, to announce the results of the Ekiti re-run immediately.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called for the trial and prosecution of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu for betraying his oath of office.
Soyinka who spoke at the book launch of a compendium of published articles by Eze Eluchie entitled Reign of Evil held yesterday in Lagos, declared: " Iwu should be formerly tried on criminal charges for betraying his oath of office. He should be the first to have the courage to say something is wrong, and therefore say 'I am going to re-do this.' Anything short of this is a dereliction of duty. And this attempt to twist the choice, the mandate of the people in Ekiti State is so explosive that only a fully irresponsible and conscienceless person can allow it to happen.
"Already, a governor has called him a criminal and I support that name."
He also dropped the warning that, should anything happen to the state electoral commissioner, Mrs. Olusola Ayoka Adebayo over her refusal to play along in the plot, "some people are going to be in serious trouble. We are going to make sure that wherever they go anywhere in the world, they will be pursued the same way Omar Al-Bashir is being pursued now, the same way as other criminals who perpetrated crime against humanity have been pursued. Like Charles Taylor, the same thing will happen to them. The coming generations will not forgive or forget even after we have gone. That is a promise."
The professor of Literature called on the Inspector- General of Police, Mike Okiro to discharge his responsibility by ensuring that Mrs. Adebayo is given proper protection.
"Your job is to protect the woman", he said.
On the re-branding project of the Federal Government, Soyinka gave a sarcastic shrug, saying: "I don't know exactly what it means because Nigeria has been branded like cattle. You know the way they brand cattle with hot iron, is that what they want to do again? They think the original branding was not enough, so they want to put more iron...so I don't understand this re-branding business."
Soyinka also gave hint of the symbolic trial of former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Citizen Group is putting together. He noted that such trial held in the past assisted in the indictment of the Sudanese President Al-Basir at the International Crimes Court at The Hague, which later culminated in the warrant of arrest issued against him. He said Obasanjo also would not escape justice for his atrocious rule between 1999 and 2007.
The Special Guest of Honour, Umar Ghali Na'Abba, also described the electoral crisis in Ekiti as one the many legacies of Obasanjo. According to him, the challenges being faced by the nation to develop an internal democracy like other African countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and others have been aggravated by the method of governance introduced by Obasanjo throughout his tenure as President. "We have virtually lost our democracy. Democracy is about choice, and when there is no choice, there is no democracy."
According to Na'Abba, no political party in Nigeria today operates on the principle of true democracy. And that is one of the legacies of Obasanjo."
He therefore called on Nigerians to come out and protect their democracy.
"People in this country must reflect on whether they want democracy or not. And if we truly want democracy, we must all do what we can to protect our democracy."
The author of Reign of Evil, Mr. Eluchie, said the idea of the book was conceived when it became clear that Obasanjo would not stop assaulting the dignity of Nigerians, even when he is already out of power. Unlike other previous tyrants, who left Nigerians to forget the years of their misrule, Eluchie said, Obasanjo still goes about insulting the intelligence of Nigerians at different fora.
He described Obasanjo as a natural disaster who ruled the country for eight years.
"The devastating effect of this natural disaster was unprecedented in the annals of Nigeria's history. Millions lost their homes to unlawful government demolition and or military operation; hundreds of thousands were killed or maimed either directly by government actions or by wanton acts of corruption, which flourished under the Reign of Evil and ensured that access to basics of life was denied to the populace."
Eluchie declared that considering the way our political system is run, the court process has stopped working in getting justice for the people.
"The court process is not working again. Attempt to secure mandate through court is a waste of time. Right now, we don't have democracy, what we have is a nascent fascism, and Nigerians have to speak up."
Other eminent personalities that graced the occasion are Chairman of The Guardian Editorial Board, Dr. Rueben Abati; President, Campaign for Democracy (CD), and President, Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin and Yerima Shettima of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, among others.
