Labour Party candidate in the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga, shares his thoughts with RAPHAEL EDE on the outcome of the election among other issues
Your party alleged that the governorship election in Enugu State was marred by the mutilating and doctoring of results. Can you substantiate that?
I don’t know what you mean by my party. I have not read that statement that you are alleging, but the Peoples Democratic Party made substantial amount of money available to its members, council chairmen, among others. So, multiple strategies were adopted by the PDP in order to influence the outcome of the election. Money was given in order to vote for a particular candidate. In some places like Enugu East Local Government Area, announcement was made very early in the morning that ‘if you are not coming to vote for the PDP, better stay in your house’. Again, in some other places like Enugu North senatorial zone; for an instance, Lejja in Nsukka Local Government Area, where some people were dressed in police uniform, most likely, this uniform was sewn for them. They moved around, snatching ballot boxes.
In Igbo-Eze South, a former member of the House of Representatives snatched ballot boxes. Some others in the ruling party in the state were involved in the snatching of ballot boxes to prevent elections from going on. In several wards in Orba, which is the community of the incumbent governor, ballot boxes were snatched when voting was going on. So, there were multiple strategies to scare people. In Enugu North senatorial zone for instance, which was considered my strong area, the strategy was to scare people away from coming out. So, before the election, armed thugs were everywhere; some of them were lodged in hotels.
The second was vote-buying and another one was the bypass of the BVAS; the device the Independent National Electoral Commission introduced in order to have free and fair elections. You know that some of these things, in the fullness of time, the truth will unfold. There was a major bypass of the BVAS in many areas and all those things are going to unfold with time as we engage in the judicial process where we expect that these matters will become public knowledge.
There was panic response to the first election; the National Assembly election where the Labour Party completely routed the PDP, but they were all worried that their political career built since 1999 would be in jeopardy if they didn’t retrieve the governorship seat by force. If they could retrieve it when things were orderly, free and fair but to try to retrieve it against the wishes of the people is something we are not going to subscribe to; it’s something that we have to fight judicially, as long as we are strong, alive and able.
Supporters of the PDP were of the view that the LP was unpopular in the North and in some states where the PDP has been in power since 1999, what’s your response?
If they say that the LP is not popular in North, they don’t even understand the rate of unpopularity of the PDP in the North. The PDP has been in power since 1999 and everyone knows that Enugu State has been in a backward movement, regressing materially in the area of employment, the poverty index in high, education record as it is obtained from West Africa Examination Certificate has not been favourable and infrastructure development has been low. Every aspect is really affected. The fact that the PDP has been in power since 1999 is offensive to the ideology of the Igbo people. They (Igbo) believe in dynamism, in change.
So, as far as I’m concerned, the PDP has outlived its usefulness and has offended a lot of people, especially, the fact that the presidential ticket was denied southern Nigeria. That is enough to make people move away from the PDP. Igbo people are wise; they are reasonable people. The PDP has outlived its usefulness in Igbo land and we can see everywhere. In Abia, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra states that the PDP is long gone. In Enugu, they basically see it as a meal ticket, but people who are driven by principles in their polity have moved away from the PDP to the LP, APC and APGA or have gone quiet with their lives. People who are in the PDP and think the PDP is still out there are just like those in the top deck of a sinking ship. Ice-berg has compromised the bottom and they don’t even know.
For a long time, PDP has been sinking in performance, in public expectation, in their response to the expectation of the Igbo people with regards to the presidency. So, the PDP was already dying gradually before the impetus of the LP came, the reformed electoral process came and impetus of the reformed electoral system will perform optimally. Therefore, the PDP is not there anymore and what is left there is the carcass. All the arms and legs of the party have been amputated. All the House of Reps members are wiped out and House of Assembly completely depleted. What is left is just the head without bodies and that will not survive for long.
How do you justify the claim in some quarters that you lost because you were not the people’s choice?
I remain the people’s choice. I was in the primary with the PDP. I was a clear choice and immediately the allegations of buying of governorship seat and all those manoeuvres were evident, I left the PDP. When I left the PDP, I can say it over and over again, public view and estimation of the PDP, perception of the public about the PDP deemed substantially after I resigned from the party. In contrast, public view of the Labour Party appreciated when I joined the party and the victory that the LP has recorded in Enugu State under my leadership is great. Our national leader, Peter Obi, told me that I performed well. Under one year, we took the LP from somewhere down to the apex of power where we have won two senatorial seats, won 14 out of 24 House Assembly seats. It’s almost an impossible feat and we have done it and everyone knows that we won it.
Results from 16 local governments had come in and LP was winning with 11,000 votes before the connivance of INEC workers with the PDP in the state. In connivance, they kept Nkanu East LGA, it came last and why should it come last? Is it by alphabetical order or by distance? It’s even the closest to INEC office. So, why should it come in last? It came in last because they were waiting for other results to come in to know what to manipulate and it was about the fourth electoral result sheet that was destroyed that day in order to compute their anomaly and yet they got it wrong. 14,000 voters were captured by BVAS and they returned 30,000.
Where did they get the difference of 16,000? When co-conspirators in Abuja and Enugu realised their folly, they halted the result collation for three days and removed some thousands and brought a new result sheet which they referred to as amended result sheet and gave the PDP a lead of 3,000 over the LP. Out of the 30,000, they cut it down to 16,000. That was what happened; we won everywhere. Going by this result, a lot of votes in some places were cancelled but in those places where votes were cancelled, the voter registration in those areas was even more than the margin of lead. Then, what criteria did they use in announcing that result? The criterion was ‘order from above.’ The criterion for announcing that result which was cooked up was ‘order from above.’
How has it been since after the PDP governorship candidate was announced the winner of the Enugu State governorship election?
It has been quite frustrating. I’m soul-searching and it’s time for re-examination of many things in the sense that the impression one has about the country of moving forward has been challenged, especially by the conduct of INEC. One has always had the hope that with strong institutions like INEC, police, army, NYSC, National Assembly and various national institutions doing their work, gradually, the sense of what it is to be a Nigerian with the attendant positive implications will begin to actualise. However, the outcome of the Enugu State governorship election was a very big setback, especially with respect to the conduct of the personnel of INEC.
The bottom line is that the LP won 14 out 24 members of the House of Assembly, leaving 10 for the PDP which has been in power since 1999. Out of eight members of the House of Representatives, the LP won seven, leaving only one to the PDP. Out of two seats of National Assembly, the LP won two and the total percentage of vote recorded by the LP is around 87 per cent. So, clearly, Enugu State is an LP state. Even the day that the governorship election was held, some House of Assembly and senatorial elections were held simultaneously and the LP won about five out of seven House of Assembly seats in Enugu East senatorial constituency where the PDP candidate came from. On the same day also, the senatorial seat was up for election and the LP won.
So, three elections were held at the same time, the LP won five or six House of Assembly seats, won a senatorial seat in the same zone where the governorship candidate of the PDP came from and in the rest of the state, the LP won. So, where did INEC get the votes allocated to the PDP (governorship) candidate? Immediately that result was announced, Enugu State knew that something terrible had happened. Enugu State has been in a state of shock, disbelieve and anger because the mandate for change which we clearly conveyed across Enugu State has been arrested. The divine mandate; divine in the sense that people withstood thunder and brimstone, the PDP weaponised 17 council chairmen with all their key officers, relevant commissioners in all ministries and appointees were weaponised and money were given to them to buy votes where they could in order to depress votes and snatch ballot boxes. Very prominent persons in Enugu State; members of House of Reps, major parastatals were directly implicated in the process of snatching of ballot boxes and electoral materials and burning already completed votes at the points where victory was about to be announced for the LP. This happened is many areas.
You claimed that in Nkanu East, some votes were captured by the BVAS.
A total of 14,000 votes were captured by the BVAS
How did they come about the 16,000 that was given to the PDP?
What I know is that at the point when there were protests, collation was suspended and all the relevant officers of INEC were summoned. I think in Abuja, they did their magic and cut the figure from 30,000 to 16,000. No agent from the LP was in that meeting where some INEC officials and others met. I understand that there was a meeting and readjustment of figures. They brought it from 30,000 to 16,000 and then gave the PDP a lead of 3,000 ahead of the LP. How it was made, I can’t say and I have not been informed till now. I’m not even sure that there’s a law that permits collation of results to be suspended that long. Some people were summoned to Abuja to now decide who would be the next governor of the state; I don’t think such a thing is contained in the law.
You were advised to go to court if you were not satisfied with the result. How far have you gone with that?
We have gone to court just the way they asked us to do. ‘Go to court’ has become the new mantra in Nigeria. When those who brazenly failed to do what they were expected to do, those who perverted the system, they would say ‘go to court.’ That’s the new mantra of cynicism in Nigeria and contempt for processes in Nigeria. Yes, I have accepted that challenge and have gone to court in good faith. I understand what they mean by ‘go to court.’ It means go there and waste your time, go there and spend your money. We will be sworn in and use the resources of the state against you. That is what ‘go to court’ means. It means that we have got this one anyhow and we will get that one too anyhow. We understand the nuances of ‘go to court.’ It’s the new sarcasm in Nigeria, but we will survive all of that.
I have taken their admonition and have gone to court and I have faith in the judicial system in Nigeria, I have faith in God and I have faith in Nigeria and I’m hopeful for a better outcome.
Your presidential candidate and his running mate were accused of making treasonable comments by opposing the swearing-in of the president-elect, Bola Tinubu. Do you think Obi and Datti went too far in their comments?
Obi and Datti are incapable of making treasonable statements. Nigerians have a tendency of leaving a message for the messenger. The message is that there is a delay in facilitating the legal process for adjudication of this matter. That is what they are complaining about. It’s frustrating, it’s annoying. The delay is unnecessary. The people who are responsible for facilitating judicial review of INEC actions in Nigeria should act to time for the sake of this country. Obi cannot make a treasonable statement, Datti cannot make such. They are level-headed, well meaning Nigerians who are pushing for the process to become a lot better than it is. Kenya has gone too far ahead of Nigeria. South Africa, Ghana and every other country in the world have taken over in all the indexes. It’s frustrating, annoying; it’s not nation-building at all. So, Obi did not make any other statement that is treasonable, same with Datti. The message is that let us start the adjudication process to avert further strain in the country.
