A’Ibom Elections: War Over Igini Redeployment Escalates … As Protesting Youths Hand INEC A 2-Day Ultimatum, Political Parties Kick
By UbongAbasi Ise
Calls
for the redeployment of Mr. Mike Igini, the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral
Officer, REC, has recently increased in intensity as various stakeholders in the
state continue to raise disturbing allegation of partisanship against the REC
ahead of the general elections.
Monday,
over 2,000 Akwa Ibom youth were staging a peaceful protest at the State
headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Uyo,
alleging that Mr. Mike Igini is working for the interest of the Peoples’
Democratic Party, PDP.
Mr.
Stephen Ntokekpo, who spoke on behalf of the protesting youths accused Mr.
Igini of collecting 1million dollars from the PDP in exchange of the Permanent
Voter's Cards, PVCs, to aid the party gain an edge over other political parties
in the forthcoming elections.
Ntokekpo
further said that the peaceful demonstration was to send alert to INEC that
Akwa Ibom people have rejected Igini in totality, urging the commission to send
him out of the state.
The
youth leader issued a two-day ultimatum as at Monday to the embattled REC to
leave the state, apparently, for peace to reign during the elections.
“We are very peaceful people. We love
strangers. But no one should take our peaceful nature for granted. Mike Igini
is not a professional. He has been compromised. He is fraudulent. We give him
48 hours to leave this state,” he declared.
Asides
serving the REC the ultimatum, the youth leader further warned INEC that the
protesting youth will not vacate the secretariat until Igini is redeployed.
“We
will continue to occupy this place until Igini leaves. We cannot sit on the
fence and watch a compromised INEC REC set our state on fire”, Ntokekpo stated.
Also,
the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole at the caucus meeting of the party in Abuja Monday, strongly called
on the immediate redeployment of Akwa Ibom REC noting how he went for the
choice of a PDP element to take charge over the training process of INEC ad hoc
staff in the state.
"INEC
chose to use the Governor's Special Assistant to superintend over the training
process. How can our brothers and sisters in Akwa Ibom State have confidence
when the process, the recruitment, the training, the deployment of the ad-hoc staff
is done between the INEC REC and the Government of Akwa Ibom State? As we speak
that problem persists," he stressed.
Oshiomole further emphasized the need to effect some
changes in INEC in order to have free and fair elections.
"We have conveyed to INEC the need for them to
remove some officers who have stayed too long in particular locations as to
become part and parcel of the establishment of those locations and therefore
may not be able to conduct free and fair election.
"I
have pointed out some Resident Electoral Commissioners who have become so
comfortable in their new residences that they are in alliance with authorities
in those states. In the past when issues like this arose and especially when
they can be proven, INEC leadership would have used their administrative
structure to change and redeploy. But the more you complain about the
compromised officers the more INEC leadership is determined to keep the compromised
officers," he said.
To add to Mike Igini’s many troubles, the Forum of All
Political Parties, FAPP, a group of over 40 registered political parties, was
on Monday accusing Igini and INEC of colluding with the PDP to rig the general
elections in Akwa Ibom State. FAPP alleged that all the ad hoc staff of the
Commission is made up of loyal members and supporters of the PDP, contrary to
extant practices and institutional requirements, adding that "the
Commission has acted as though it were part of the Government House in Uyo."
Meanwhile the Akwa Ibom State APC had earlier petitioned
the national headquarters of INEC alleging that Mr. Mike Igini has developed a
soft spot for PDP in the state.
In a letter addressed to the INEC and co-signed by the
APC State Chairman, Mr. Ini Okopido and the party’s state secretary, Mr.
Augustine Ekanem, the petition has it that Mr. Igini is working hand-in-glove
with Mr Udom Emmanuel, to rig, manipulate and influence the forthcoming
elections in favour of the governor and his Party, the PDP.
“We
have evidence to show that the REC, Mr Mike Igini, has handed over the
uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to the officials of Akwa Ibom State
Government House, Uyo. These uncollected PVCs are in thousands. We do know that
it is not the role of the state government or its officials to keep custody of
these uncollected PVCs.
“Mr.
Igini has been carrying out selective punitive measures against some electoral
officers (EOs) whom he perceives to be resisting his partisanship and biased
conducts. For instance, he recently removed the electoral officer (EO) of Ikot
Abasi LGA from office while other EOs has been thrown out of office for their
uprightness, professionalism and decision to stand against Mr. Igini’s ulterior
motives. Other EOs whom Mr. Igini has arbitrarily removed from office for
resisting his bias, partisanship and favouritism to the PDP are: Mr. Anderson
Gogo Waribo; Mr. Ogwo-UdeHappiness and Mr. Kingsley Arukwe. In the last one
week, he has removed six EOs from office for daring to resist his partisan
conduct,” the letter reads in parts.
Comments
Post a Comment