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By Ehichioya Ezomon
The days, weeks and months ahead may witness further clashes, and severer bloodletting between alleged political thugs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, over petitions filed by dissatisfied seven parties to overturn the victory of the APC in the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
There’re conflicting claims about the sympathy of the thugs in the Monday, December 9, 2024, attack during the inaugural sitting of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal at the High Court in Benin City. While some reports speak of clashes between the thugs, the APC and PDP have accused each other as the aggressors in the mayhem.
The acting chairman of the Edo APC, Emperor Jarret Tenebe, alleged in a statement on December 10 that the party had alerted security agencies of the probable assault, noting, “despite our repeated efforts to alert the authorities ahead of this attack, the police ignored our warnings, leading to these senseless acts of violence.”
Tenebe added: “These PDP thugs, who were in branded Asue Ighodalo’s T-shirts and caps, came with battle axes, bottles and other dangerous weapons, which they used freely on APC members, who did not provoke any fight. They took over the court premises and adjoining streets without resistance from the police. Several of our members and lawyers were injured, while the police failed to act decisively to stop the violence.”
However, the Edo PDP caretaker committee chairman, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, accused the APC and Governor Monday Okpehbolo of “sending thugs after the PDP members, who were at the court,” adding, “It was clear that the APC and Governor Okpebholo sent thugs after the PDP members at the court. They were the aggressors and we have reported the case to the police.”
On September 22, 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Monday Okpebholo (APC, Edo Central) as winner of the previous day’s election, with 291,667 votes, defeating the candidate of the PDP, Dr Asue Ighodalo, who polled 247,274 votes, and the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Olumide Akpata, who scored 22,763 votes.
The PDP, which rejected the election while still in progress, has – along with the Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) – filed petitions with the three-member tribunal, led by Justice Wilfred Kpochi, seeking to overturn the results, and declare its candidate, Ighodalo, the winner of the poll.
One fact has emerged from the back-and-forth between the APC and PDP over the thugs’ attack, which’s that PDP supporters wore Asue Ighodalo-emblazoned T-shirts and face caps to the tribunal premises, provoking reactions from the APC members. But as, “The hood does not make the Monk,” donning Ighodalo’s campaign paraphernalia can’t influence the petitions at the tribunal, and shouldn’t have caused any conflict.
From Election Day, the PDP and Ighodalo have claimed they won the poll “hands down,” referencing reported “votes tally” uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal. But it alleged attempts by the APC to pressure INEC to manipulate the collated figures in its (APC’s) favour.
The PDP national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, urging INEC against conniving with the APC to suspend collation of results – as a precursor to changing the figures – warned of dire consequences “from aggrieved Edo voters,” reports The Guardian on September 22.
“Intelligence available to the PDP indicates that the APC is mounting pressure on the INEC Chairman and Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to suspend the collation process so as to make way for the manipulation of the INEC portal and replace the real results from the units with fabricated figures in favour of the APC,” Mr Ologunagba said in a statement.
“INEC and the APC must note that any attempt to change the results of the Edo State governorship election will provoke worse consequences, as the people have indicated their readiness to use every means allowed in a democracy, including legitimate physical confrontation, if necessary, to protect their votes,” he added.
But the APC, via its national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, urged the Edo voters to ignore the “fake results” by the PDP, as collation hadn’t even been concluded at the ward level. “Our great party wishes to clarify that collation at the ward level is still ongoing and has yet to be concluded. Certainly, local government level collation has yet to begin in most of the LGAs in the state let alone concluded,” Mr Morka said.
“Consistent with the Electoral Act, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the sole authorised body empowered to collate results at the Ward, Local Government and State levels, and to officially declare the result of the election,” he added.
Similarly advising the public to await its final announcement, and disregard speculative results “being circulated on social media,” the INEC warned social media users, “announcing unverified results of the Edo gubernatorial election,” that the electoral body “has the authority to announce official election results.”
The PDP’s sustained the propagation that it won the election, even after Okpebholo’s declaration as “Governor-elect,” and his swearing in as “Governor of Edo State” (with Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa) on November 12, 2024.
The PDP refrains include: “Asue Is Coming,” “We Are Going To Retrieve Our Stolen Mandate,” “Okpebholo Is Using A Stolen Mandate,” and “Okpebholo Is A Six-month Governor” – the latter message refers to the six months (180 days) allowed by the electoral laws for the tribunal to dispose of petitions before it.
So, the onus is on the PDP and Ighodalo to prove the series of allegations of electoral malpractice by the triumvirate of APC, INEC and security agencies, to suppress reported PDP’s votes, and inflate APC’s scores in several council areas, and at the final tallying at the INEC headquarters in Benin City.
Recall lately Governor Okpebholo’s accusation that PDP’s claim of securing majority votes at the election was juiced-up from a “fake IReV” purporting the figures to come from the official IReV portal for real-time sighting of poll results as they’re uploaded at the polling units.
Okpebholo, on November 30, at a reception in his honour by the Esan people of Edo Central at Irrua, headquarters of Esan Central local council of Edo State, stated that, “The people, who wrote results and were announcing fake results on the internet, are the same people crying today that somebody rigged the election.”
“It is sad to say that the criminals are crying today that they have lost, and will continue to lose,” Okpebholo said. “They are spending money day and night and wasting their money, and they will wait in vain. Edo people have spoken. They have chosen the path of development, peace, and unity. This is what Edo people have chosen, and that is how it will remain.”
While the public expect the PDP and Ighodalo to prove that they – and not the APC and Okpebholo – won the September 21 governorship in Edo State, the election petitions tribunal, chairman, Justice Wilfred Kpochi, has asked all stakeholders, including political parties, parties in the suit, their supporters, counsel, security agencies, and the media to cooperate for a smooth and successful hearing.
During the tribunal’s sitting on December 9, as reported by PUNCH on December 10, Justice Kpochi, with Justices A.B. Yusuf and A.A. Adewole, urged the counsel not to engage in unnecessary arguments that could lead to shouting, and jeopardising the convenient atmosphere in the court.
“I am impressed by the conducive and calm environment I am seeing, and going forward, I will want this to continue,” Justice Kpochi said, adding, “I appeal to you all to let us put our eyes on the ball so that we can have serene proceedings. You have SANs (Senior Advocates of Nigeria) and very senior lawyers here, nobody is going to shout at you, (and) please, don’t also shout at us. If there are areas you feel not comfortable about, please draw our attention to it.”
As Ken Mozia (SAN), one of the lead counsel for Ighodalo, pledged their commitment to the proceedings, “as long as other parties would do the same,” it’s to be seen what next the alleged party thugs will do, and how the Police will respond to such scenarios at subsequent sittings of the tribunal.
It’s to be seen what next the alleged party thugs will do, and how the Police will respond to such scenarios at subsequent sittings of the tribunal, as the presence of security agents at the inaugural sitting didn’t deter the violent thugs from attacking party members and lawyers, injuring several persons in the process.
More worrying is Edo APC’s avowal not to restrain its members from matching the antic of alleged PDP thugs in subsequent court dates, with the APC chapter chairman, Tenebe, declaring that in the circumstance of the alleged December 9 attack on APC’s members, “We are left with no option but to defend ourselves and also be on ground to arrest those we have identified as killers of Inspector Akor, some of whom also inflicted life-threatening injuries on our members today.”
(Inspector Akor Onu, a security detail attached to then-Senator and APC governorship candidate, Okpebholo, was killed on July 18, 2024, at the entrance of the Benin Airport by alleged thugs, who attacked the convoys of Okpebholo and then-reinstated Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu as they arrived at the airport from Abuja. The APC alleged that the gunmen acted on behalf of the PDP, which vehemently denied the accusation, and that failure of the Police to bring the attackers to book “may have emboldened those who participated in Monday’s (December 9) attack” on APC’s members at the tribunal’s sitting.)
Henceforth, the law enforcements must rein in any armed hoodlums from molesting innocent party members and lawyers attending the tribunal proceedings. No room for thuggery, but evidence to substantiate the issues in dispute!
*Mr Ezomon, journalist and media consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357 .
