Some notable politicians especially the governors and some corrupt officials of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and flippant security personnel formed the shameless rigging syndicate that ruined 2023 presidential election in Nigeria
By Miracle Egbo
Nyesom Wike, the outgoing governor of Rivers State is seen in some quarters as the dog of war in the just concluded presidential and even governorship elections in the country. Various videos that have gone viral showed how wike was shown going round the polling units across his state trying to subvert the wishes of the electorate. He was alleged to have forced the collation electoral officers to change the figures already recorded in the polling units to declare his preferred presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. An evidential documents in circulation reveals that in one particular polling unit, Labour Party, LP scored 223 votes against All progressives Congress, APC which got eight in the presidential election but at the collation centre in Rivers State, when the final result was announced from the same polling unit, LP’s votes were swapped with APC’s, and the latter won in that polling unit. Information has it that what happened in that polling unit was sustained at the heist of Wike in all the polling units scattered all over the state in the just concluded presidential election in the country.
The action of Wike in the presidential election is metaphoric of what transpired in 10 states where the votes of LP were swapped for APC for no just cause. The states are Lagos, Kaduna, Benue, Bauchi, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo and Imo States. For instance, in Imo State, the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma was alleged to have masterminded the kidnapping of the election officers in the state with intention of forcing the electoral officers to swap the votes of LP for APC in order to shore up the 25 per cent required for the president-elect in the election. Uzodinma, like his Rivers counterpart, did everything possible to deliver his state to Tinubu even when the electorate was saying otherwise. In Benue State for instance, George Akume, a serving Minister played the role of Wike perfectly when the votes garnered by the LP was illegally transferred to the ruling party. Akume went a step further by allegedly using the service of the military to thwart the wishes of the electorate in the state. Akume made sure that LP was denied its victory with impunity.
More pathetic is what happened in Kaduna during the presidential election. Prior to the election, the governor of the state, Nasir El.Ruffai said that Christians in the state are in the minority, therefore, is not to be reckoned with. At the poll proper, Christians in the state made a statement with their votes when they voted massively for LP. However, El-Ruffai allegedly subverted the will of the people of Kaduna State by donating the votes of LP to APC with the aid of the electoral officials in the state. In the state, evidential documents showed mutilated result sheets were tendered at the National collation centre and accepted without any consequences.
In Ekiti State the rigging that took place against LP is colossal. The number of accredited and registered voters is at variance with the numbers being bandied by the officials of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Professor Mahmood Yakubu in a feeble explanation when reminded that the result of Ekiti defied every logical argument made for a credible and transparent election, never issued consequences to those behind the infraction. The outing of INEC in Ekiti State in the just concluded presidential election real time cast blurs in the transparency and credibility of the election. Ditto for Oyo State where the outcome of the polling units put LP on the lead but the final results subverted that outcome no thanks to the INEC officials and the assistance of the incumbent governor, Seyi Makinde, allegedly though, who was fighting for his reelection bid which he erroneously believed is hinged on supporting the ruling party candidate in the presidential election.
In Ondo, the story is the same as the supporters of LP were seen being hounded by the party thugs loyal to the ruling party in the state forcing electorate to vote for APC or be harmed. Even when the voters resisted the hounding and voted for LP the INEC officials decided to subvert the wishes of the people by allegedly swapping the LP votes for APC to get him the required 25 per cent votes to win.
In Lagos State, despite the armed suppression of voters led by the notorious thug, MC Oluomo against voters that are perceived to be sympathetic to the LP course, the voters voted for the LP candidate in the presidential and governorship election. The INEC led by Segun Agbaje in the state was accused of subtracting the votes of the LP and added to APC in order to shore up the votes of the party to meet the required 25 percent votes in the state. The shenanigan in Lagos was so appalling that the votes actually garnered by APC in the presidential election was not up to 150, 000, according to the evidential documents obtained from the stable of INEC during the presidential election. In Bauchi State swapping of LP votes as in other states mentioned above was the order of the day. For instance, in Bauchi local government area of the state, LP scored 199 votes, at the collation centre, it was only 185 votes that were given to the party in the whole state suggesting that LP never got any single votes in all the other local government areas, “this is meant for the fool paradise because is unimaginable to think that this kind of thing would be happening in our country in the 21st century”, offered a respondent who does not want his name in print, adding that what happened in February 25, 2023 was repulsive in every sense of it.
Whatever is the case, the role of some syndicated riggers across the states mentioned above helped in blurring whatever successes INEC might have made with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS.
