As the people of Essien Udim would be filing out on Saturday 25th January, 2020 to participate in the upcoming rerun election as ordered by the court, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has cautioned stakeholders in the electoral process to play by the rule warning that anything short of that could result in the cancelation of the exercise.
The rerun will also hold same day in about eleven other states across the country where cases of electoral malpractices and violence were established by the court. INEC boss in a statement had maintained that it will no longer be business as usual for politicians who rely on violence and other means outside the confines of the law to be declared winners and defend same at the Law Courts. Prof. Yakubu vowed that going forward, even though it has no power to cancel elections, it will no longer declare winners in manipulated elections or where Returning Officers are threatened. The electoral umpire also said that elections will no longer proceed in any constituency where the safety of voters, personnel and materials is threatened.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, gave the hint at the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) in Abuja. According to him, “going forward, INEC has decided that although the Commission has no power under the law to cancel an election, it will not proceed with the process in any constituency where the safety of voters, our personnel and materials is threatened.
“Furthermore, collation of results will not proceed where the collation centres are invaded. No declaration of winners will be made where Returning Officers are threatened”.
This declaration by the INEC boss comes timely, given the level of desperation by some political actors who are hell bent on perpetuating electoral crime against the very people they are aspiring to lead. The people of Essien Udim will not forget in a hurry, the level of electoral violence visited on them by those who had seen defeat starring on their faces, but would not want to concede. That is how the APC brought War Saw on the people of Essien Udim who had made up their mind to vote PDP. Many were wounded, materials were hijacked by APC thugs and taken elsewhere for thumb printing, electoral officials were not spared as they also received their own share of War Saw. Faithful of the PDP who tried to resist them were attacked and maimed. The Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal confirmed this in their judgment.
It is worthy of note here that INEC has also strengthened measures to check illegal deployment of money by politicians to influence outcome of elections. If this is so, then it means money induced voting is gradually fading away as electorates would only vote their conscience.
Prof Yakubu noted; “You will similarly recall that at our last meeting, we expressed concern about the dimension that illegal deployment of financial resources to influence the outcome of elections, including vote-buying at polling units on Election Day, has assumed. at the meeting, recognising the existing collaboration with the anti-corruption agencies in tracking financial flows for illicit purposes as well as the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of such flows, especially for the purpose of corrupting the electoral process through vote-buying, resolved that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) should be included as members of ICCES”, the INEC Chair added
The Commission decried security lapses that marred the 2019 general elections, especially the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections. It therefore vowed to adopt a different approach to election security.
According to Yakubu, “it is the responsibility of the security agencies to secure the environment for the successful conduct of elections. The purpose of security deployment during elections is to protect the voters, election officials and materials, accredited observers, the media and to safeguard the integrity of the processes generally, including the polling units and collations centres.
“The Commission is concerned that security deployment in some of the most recent elections left much to be desired. There is more emphasis on numbers of security personnel to be deployed but less consideration on strategic deployment to protect the process, leaving the voters, election officials, party agents, observers, the media and even unarmed security personnel at polling units vulnerable to attacks by thugs and hoodlums”.
“Furthermore, there is emphasis on numbers of security personnel but less on synergy, coordination and collaboration among the various security agencies in line with the purpose for which ICCES was established in the first instance.
“We must adopt a different approach to election security. We must translate the new approach to reality in the forthcoming rerun elections such that Nigerians will see a qualitatively different security arrangement.
“No thugs and hoodlums can be more powerful than the Nigeria Police and other security agencies. It is the failure to act decisively and collaboratively that encourages thuggery and serves as an incentive for bad behaviour”.
The electorate in Essien Udim are expected to cast their votes for the next House of Assembly member, and would also vote for the candidate of choice for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial district seat and the House of representatives seat for Ikot-Ekpene Federal Constituency. While Senator Chris Ekpenyong of the PDP will be slugging it out with Senator Godswill Akpabio of the APC (though Akpabio has officially written to INEC backing out of the race, INEC says it can’t replace him with a fresh candidate).
Mr. Nsikak Ekong the current House of Representatives Member for Ikot-Ekpene Federal Constituency will be facing Mr. Emmanuel Akpan of APC in the rerun.
Barr. Ese Umoh is candidate of the PDP for House of Assembly seat Essien seat. He is contesting against Mr. Nse Ntuen of the APC. The State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Barr. Mike Igini will be supervising the election, while security agencies are expected to provide security in Essien Udim for both the electorate, electoral officers, electoral materials, the media and observers.
Intelligent information has it that members of the opposition have perfected plans to import thugs they would use in perpetuating electoral crime against the people on the day of rerun. But the youths of Essien Udim are ready to square up with them, should they attempt to disrupt the process.
The PDP Youth Leader in Essien Udim, Raymond Ekpe syas he is very confident that what happened during the National and Assembly election in 2019 won’t repeat on Saturday 25the January in Essien Udim, as according to him; “The youths of Essien Udim are ready for the election. We have been educating and sensitizing the people about the rerun election coming up on January 25. As the Leader of the 11 ward Leaders in Essien Udim, we meet every week strategizing on how to go about the election”
“We are ready to tackle any kind of thing we would see on that day. Whatever their plan is, it’s going to work. Let me also inform you that there have been series of massive defection from APC to the PDP in Essien Udim”, Raymond added.
