Governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Cross River State, Mrs. Ima Nsa-Adegoke, in an interview with MUDIAGA AFFE, explains the need for the Independent National Electoral Commission to correct certain anomalies in the April general elections before the 2012 governorship poll in the state. Excerpts:
Shortly after you emerged as the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Cross River State, the former state chairman of the party, Mr. Theo Onyuku, also printed his posters as a candidate. Have you resolved this?
Our party has always been in order. What we contended with was the singular ambition of one man who planned to scuttle the entire process of democracy. It was a sad event. For me, it was an inoculation or initiation into the murky waters of politics. This was sad in the sense that the process was undertaken by someone who was supposed to be the custodian of democracy. I came into the party and signified my intention to run for office of the governor. He tried to convince me to go for any other elective office and I said to him I was not obliged to go for any other office. I told him I didn’t come into politics to play games as it were. I told him I was in politics with my husband’s money and mine as well as those who believed in the gospel were preaching. I told him that I didn’t come into politics of the normal cadre. I came in because I felt very grieved as to what was happening in my father’s house. I came in upon realising that the foundation that was laid was not consolidated upon, rather my state, Cross River, was retrogressing unlike other states. For instance, former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, left some measure of legacy and his successor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, built on it and excelled. I know that what Tinubu left for Fashola is not half as much as what Donald Duke left for Liyel Imoke in Cross River State, which we had hoped would be built on. Now when I came into the Labour Party, Theo Onyuku accused me of being a stooge of the Peoples Democratic Party. He accused me of being a stooge of Duke, and stopped short of accusing me of being a stooge of Imoke himself. He had lots of accusations. Of course, he had asked me if I knew Imoke and Duke, I said yes. I knew them many years ago. We were at Law School together and we were very good friends. But I have not been in touch with them; not even with Duke when he was at Government House. I never got in touch with him neither have I re-established the friendship. I don’t do government contracts. So it was ridiculous for him to have said I was their stooge, who wanted to seize the party. It was indeed sad that he came out with posters when he knew that the party at the state and national levels had endorsed my candidacy. Well, it all played out, he was suspended by the national headquarters of the party.
The activities of opposition parties in the state before the general elections did not translate to victory. Do you still have hope that you’ll be victorious in the August 2012 governorship election?
When you look at that election, you will find that the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Mike Igini, had the best of intentions but we know that it felt short of expectations because of a number of factors. As a party, we still commend him. As things turned out, there were a lot of things that did not play out right, especially due to the fact of inducement. But that was not within INEC’s control. They were not to arrest culprits at polling units. That was the duty of policemen and other security agencies. Unfortunately, many of them were compromised.
So, how should INEC plug these holes?
That is their challenge. We as a party are going to send in our paper as to what we think they should be doing. The youth corps member too were of course very compromised. We are looking at the fact that in the forthcoming governorship race in 2012, there are just going to be five states. It is so staggered that I do not see INEC using the corps members again. They will use their own staff. INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and the Cross River REC would have been able to flush out those thought to have been compromised before then. Because it is going to be INEC ‘in-house organised’ election, you can be certain that many of the pitfalls that were noticed will hopefully not happen again. For instance, there were units that were allegedly moved into people’s houses. So, such issues as accreditation which were the main issues would be attended to. This was the loophole because it was done simply by ticking the voter register. In many of the polling units, there were cases of compromised officials who would not announce accreditation numbers. And they allowed people to come in at any time to vote. It was open to fraud. When people had finished voting and returned to their houses, it was possible that the officials could have thumb-printed those extra names that could not come out. Thumb-printing was massively done in the rural areas. But it was more of inducement in the urban areas as politicians came with money, recharge cards, food items, etc.
What message do you have for INEC?
Having looked at all these, we at Labour Party are saying that INEC has done a lot to show that it wants credible elections. This much happened in certain urban areas unlike the hinterland. For the 2012 elections, INEC must not only use their direct staff, they must use the Direct Data Capture machines. Because there is no point capturing voters’ details in the machine and you do not allow them to vote. These machines are there. That’s why we calling on Jega not to give pieces of paper but use the details in the DDC machines because our politicians with bags of money can buy these papers up. I can assure you that if people get good professional advice and go to the election tribunals, many of them will be returned, because they will find two or three persons’ finger prints on the papers. So since it is in August 2012, we trust that all these loopholes would have been plugged. When that is done, you can be certain that the opposition will excel.
Continued here:
‘INEC must address anomalies before 2012 gov elections’