This story is real. It is part of what happens today in the country. Incidentally, I had captured it three years earlier. But on the back of what you think of INEC’s plan to put in place a rigging capsule for whatever party following the postponement of the election to March 28, I thought I should share again.
Who could have imagined that ‘small APGA could scientifically out-rig ‘a whole’ PDP and ‘a whole APC, masters of political thievery, ballot box stuffing and election thuggery- It happened in Anambra.
The holy man, a man of few words, the man who built a church right next to his bedroom, Peter “the Great” Obi, did it and, quite effortlessly too last weekend.
Naturally, the mighty PDP is not amused; the big southwest bully, APC, is not either. Both parties are now running through the usual gamut of displeasure. INEC has been mercilessly upbraided for ‘totally sham, hung or inconclusive election’.
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Now Ngige (APC), Nwoye (PDP) and Ifeanyi (LP) are huffing and puffing about “completely unacceptable” INEC behavior.
Are they protesting too much? When PDP mercilessly swept the country in 2003, using one of the most advanced election rigging technique never seen any where in the third world before, they told everyone else who quipped to go to court.
Turn of event-INEC has offered to pay their “molue” fares to the courts if they are not satisfied with the (s)election results and as usual hundreds of hounds of hungry, known and unknown “legal luminaries” are thronging Anambra for a chance to be part of the election fall-out pie.
Local television stations are now awash with these types of guys who have turned overnight- “public commentators, “legal analysts”, “pundits” and what have you.
Guys!!! Just “shut up”-APGA simply beat you to your game. Just accept it, whether you like it or not-that’s the way our democracy is shaping out. If you out rig, you win, if loose go to plan “B”- the courts otherwise device your next best rigging technology.
Believe that!! It is no longer by the bullets or by stuffing ballot boxes. It is simply by the number of INEC officials you can bribe and the number of judges you can buy at the tribunals and the number of names, including that of a contestant and his/her family you can delete from the ballot paper.
Yes!! That is what PDP entrenched in Nigeria’s polity.
So, the other parties are beginning to perfect it and that was why APC reclaimed the southwest, LP conjured a state government house, those whose names where not in the ballot won seats to the senate, House and state houses of assembly.
Great stuff. It’s like watching Sebastian Vettel smoke the entire Formula 1 field this year. No be magic, it skills, in this rigging skills
Which leaves the police and army, who can claim greater virtue because they did not take any part or mentioned in a compromising manner after the election, choosing instead to cash in on their election dividends. In the past they had a full physical presence-both in terms of harassment or real and outright participation in the stealing of voters card and ballot boxes.
This tells you how more sophisticated election rigging has become and I believe that is the way the country should go-just perfect it and brand it HOME GROWN ELECTION PROCESS-pretty much the same way America developed their own process. Hahahahaha (funny).
Charles Ike-Okoh
