Alphonsus Nweze
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has strongly condemned the latest announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that it will use Imo State for storage of its sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials for the Nov 6, 2021 Anambra Governorship Election.
The commission had cited the burning of its headquarters in Awka, Anambra State by unknown gunmen as a reason to use Imo State for storage of its materials for the all-important Poll.
But in a statement the group challenged the integrity of the decision by the Electoral Commission and therefore “strongly condemned, rejected the decision and insisted that the decision must be reversed.
Said the group: “Intersociety hereby aligns itself with Gov. Willie Obiano who announced total rejection of same and gave several salient reasons why the use of Imo as storage facilities must not be allowed.
“We also see INEC’s latest ‘forced revelation’ as the handiwork of God who must have forced the commission to publicly disclose the clear-cut rigging strategy.
This is more so when going by the indices on the ground, there are no credible and circumstantial reasons why Imo State should be chosen or considered as ‘INEC’s alternative storage facilities’.
By proximity, Imo State is totally out because Enugu State is closer while Delta State is closest.
By demography, geopolitics, history and facilities, Enugu is more considered. Anambra also has a well built and protective Central Bank of Nigeria structure which is a stone throw from the State’s INEC secretariat at Awka.
By distance, Asaba, the Capital City of Delta State is about ten minutes drive from Anambra State and if measured from Asaba to Awka, the Capital City of Anambra State, is less than one hour drive, the same distance also if measured from Awka to Enugu; as against over two hours’ drive from Awka to Owerri”.
Intersociety in the statement signed by its chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Nze Emeka Umeagbalasi said ” by democracy, governance and securitization, Imo State has earned the inglorious status of a rogue federating unit or state in the entire Eastern Nigeria. That is to say that the state is not only insecure and roguishly democratised but also a virus state under Gov Hope Uzodimma. Most importantly, since democracy sacredly belongs to the people of nobility and conscientious men and women and geared towards decent and peaceful society, Imo State is totally unfit and a meddlesome interloper in matters of credible election and institution of democratic government powered by popular, participatory and credible electoral process. The state, therefore, must not be allowed to have anything whatsoever to do with the conduct of the Nov 6, 2021 Anambra Governorship Poll”.
Intersociety called on INEC to distance itself from having anything to do with Imo State in the Nov 6 Anambra Governorship Election, whether by storage of voting materials or movement of its career and non-career electoral officers from there to Anambra State.
The rights group warned against the repeat of the unfortunate and infamous 2017 “scientific igging”. In the Nov. 2017 Governorship Election in Anambra State, said the group INEC’s ICT Department was independently found to have been heavily compromised and its ‘industrial scale scientific manipulations’ involved a syndicated procurement of voters’ cards from vulnerable voters ahead of the poll and uploaded same on election day in the INEC servers as “uploaded validly cast votes” .
This was followed by massive and clandestine thump-printing of ballot papers in secret places on the eve of the election and on the day of same for purpose of tallying them with electronically uploaded roguish figures for purpose of escaping poll litigations.
There was also mangling of the opposing candidates’ votes leading to the number of accredited voters not tallying with the total votes cast including rejected and voided votes; and as officially announced by INEC, “over 8,540 accredited voters did not vote in the Nov 2017 Anambra Governorship Poll”.
The group lamented that similar sharp practices were the case with the commission during the 2019 general polls particularly the presidential and the State Assembly polls in Anambra State. They said, “INEC’s direct and indirect electoral manipulations then had included abandonment of authenticated results from the polling booths especially those in form ECAs, hired disruption of collection and signing of results at polling booths’ generated form ECAs or hijacking of signed result sheets on their way to ward and LGA electoral centres, tempering with and corruption of card readers, non accreditation of voters, non or late arrival of electoral personnel and materials, burning or tearing of recorded result sheets, disruption of voting, INEC’s indoor mangling and falsification of returned results, sponsored violence and deliberate creation of security tensions or artificial insecurity to scare away independent voters, etc.
“INEC is therefore not only warned against the repeat of the above highlighted sharp practices but also urged them to tell the Anambra people the number of them that are credibly cleared to vote in the Nov 6”
Intersociety said the voters must also be told the locations of the state’s new ‘5,720’ polling units or booths and electoral wards where they are located.
This , they said, was to ensure that polling booths were not created and located in the houses and sanctuaries of politicians and their cronies or foot soldiers
Finally, he stressed, “Anambra votes must count come Nov 6”.
