GANI BAKO
It is increasingly becoming clear that rather than be an impartial umpire that it was designed to be, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is becoming part of the crisis of democracy in Nigeria.
In many cases, INEC is just an appendage of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and essentially works to promote the party by meddling. And no better example exists of INEC’s meddlesomeness like Taraba State where the commission is now for the highest bidder.
All you need in Taraba is provide the cash and you can carry INEC in retail or wholesale. Clearly, INEC in Taraba is working for Mrs. Aisha Alhassan of the APC. And we have it on good authority that the Commission takes its orders from former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, whose new year’s resolution for 2016 is to visit Taraba Government House when Aisha is sitting there as governor, not through the people’s votes but by INEC’s magic.
Atiku is said to be the boss of the Returning Officer, Mohammed Kyari, whose mission was simply to come and thwart the will of the people.
The commission’s dance of shame began when Kyari, during the election and, out of the blues, suddenly declared our governorship election inconclusive. This was after he demonically cancelled all votes in an entire local government.
Already, the people’s candidate, Arc. Darius Ishaku, had won convincingly on first ballot but Kyari crudely cancelled an entire local government results over very flimsy reasons. This was after he callously rejected many results from the field.
Even after many cancellations, Darius was still leading. The next thing he did is one the lowest points of INEC’s chequered history. Kyari condemned the election of Donga Local Government because, according to him, five out of over a hundred units had problems.
Now, even a rookie umpire would have just dealt with the affected areas and, maybe, call for a re-run. But in Kyari’s haste to please his invisible financiers, whom he spoke to on phone throughout the exercise, he declared the election inconclusive having bizarrely called for a re-run in Donga Local Government.
That signalled the war of attrition against Taraba voters by INEC. After the Donga re-run, Darius still led. Kyari and co had no option but to declare Darius Ishaku the winner. Little did we know they had another plan in the wings.
Today, INEC has continued to sing a dirge for democracy. The commission has said it is not aware of any primaries in Taraba’s PDP. Well, that is hardly our concern. The constitution is clear on that one: INEC may or may not witness primaries. But dancing tango with INEC, the tribunal which could not fault the election that produced Darius as governor, accepted the commission’s position and awarded the governorship to Aisha Alhassan even when the law is against that. Because even if it is true Darius did not emerge through proper primaries, the harshest penalty would be to conduct a fresh election.
So, INEC that is not even mandated to be at any primaries is going about saying it can circumvent the people’s wish. Our position is that INEC is fast becoming partisan. Was INEC present when Aisha grabbed her party’s nomination? From findings, Aisha did not even go through any primaries.
Yet, INEC did not care. Was INEC not aware that the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, said he did not even participate in a primary election? Yet, is he not still a governor. Or is it because he belongs to INEC’s beloved party, the APC? What about the verdict on Yobe and Benue election where the appeal court ruled that primaries are strictly a pre-election matter?
INEC has clearly lost its hallow. This is no longer the neutral commission former President Goodluck Jonathan funded well even when it was not on his side.
Countenance the commission’s current dance of shame in Kogi State where it is unabashedly doing the APC bidding.
We therefore bring this matter to Nigerians to please see our predicament and come to our rescue. INEC has become the enemy of the Taraba electorate. And we shall resist the commission’s diabolic plan against us. We shall keep you posted.
Bako is of the Taraba Mandate Group
