5th September, 2013
The brazen electoral robbery in Offa Local Government by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, KWASIEC, is disturbing, preposterous and cannot stand. The cooked results announced by KWASIEC for the 31 August council election have been discredited even by one of the so-called winners.
According to the authentic results of the election in possession of KWASIEC, electoral observers and security agencies, the All Progressives Congress, APC, got 11,526 votes as against Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s 4,668 votes. The cooked figures awarded the PDP 35,937 and the APC 20,161 votes.
So offensive was the electoral heist that a councillorship candidate, Mr. Afolabi Jimoh Olawole, who was declared winner on the platform of the PDP, came out to denounce the results, saying he did not win. Olawole, who was one of the 12 councillorship candidates declared winners by KWASIEC said the PDP never won in Sawo South West Ward where he contested as the party’s candidate. According to him, PDP lost in all the eight polling units of the ward while APC won convincingly.
He wondered why he should be declared winner of an election he knew was won by his counterpart in the APC. As expected, the APC and Nigerians have expressed shock and disbelief at the daylight electoral robbery in Kwara State. Already, voters are calling on the electoral body to respect their wish and reverse the results. The local government is still peaceful but no one can guarantee what may happen if the people feel helpless and resort to self help.
The charade perpetrated by the KWASIEC seemed to underscore the fear of impunity, reckless electoral manipulations by states independent electoral commissions in favour of the ruling party in the states, as well as the call for their repudiation. The resistant of the voter in Offa has simply showed that it would not be business as usual for unscrupulous politicians and votes robbers in future elections. More so, it signifies a warning to INEC that to relent in its purported effort as shedding the corruptive toga it assumed in the not too distant past, while promising to give Nigerians credible elections in its future engagements. INEC must not toe the line of the state independent electoral commissions, a la KWASIEC.
We call on the KWASIEC and the PDP, led by Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to do the right thing so as not to throw Offa into turmoil.