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Udeze Ekene
Guest
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Edo State, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has said there were signs that the last Edo governorship election was not going to go well the way it should.
Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police failed to play neutral before and during the governorship election.
In an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, Osazie-Uzzi alleged that Police arrested and detained some stakeholders and supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
He also alleged that there were issues with early arrival of electoral materials and votes collation.
His words, “In the build-up to the election, there were ominous signs that this election wasn’t going to go as well as it should go. Those who were supposed to be guardians of the process turned into a different thing.
“Several position figures, several members of the People’s Democratic Party, for example, were arrested and taken out of the state. The law is that when a crime is committed, you arrest the person, you detain the person there, and within a limited time, bring the person before a court of law.
“But the police arrested people, they showed obvious partisanship, they arrested people, took them away from Benin, sequestered them in Abuja, kept them without bail, without access to their lawyers, without access to their family, for several weeks.
“When initially they said, look, these people, they may have committed a crime, so why don’t you grant them bail? The police refused and kept them there. When the clamor for their release got so loud, they hurriedly, hurriedly charged them to court.
“They didn’t charge them to court in Edo State, where the crimes, whatever crime they are alleged to have committed, took place. They charged them to court in Abuja, not just Abuja, they left Wuse Zone 2, where most of the magistrates’ courts are, went to a court in a village, Dutse Alhaji, charged them to court, and ten of them remanded them in a prison, a correctional facility in Niger State, and adjourned the case till after the election.
“A host of policemen all over the state looking for people, all happened to be PDP members, a host of them, looking for people, arresting people, and taking all of them. Even as I speak, three people were arrested on the eve of the election, they are still in custody against their constitutional rights, they are still in custody in Abuja, as I speak. They are there not too far from Asokoro district, they are there several days, more than a week now, they are still sequestered. They are not charged to court, not charged with any offence, and so it was ominous, and I think the clamour, people were saying, why should this be?
“They started demonstrating, but those people are still there. A host of people like that, so that was there. Then things were building up, and reports were made about the conduct of certain people, but I think we paid no heed to that.”
The Commissioner for Justice continued, “So on election day, what happened on election day was therefore not too much of a surprise. The election materials in particular areas did not get there on time, rather surprisingly, we thought that INEC had overcome its challenges, logistics challenges.
“In my ward, for example, as INEC calls it, the materials that were supposed to go to the camp, at midnight, had not arrived at the camp. This camp is about 10 minutes drive, less than 10 minutes drive from the INEC local government headquarters. And don’t forget, when the materials were moved from the INEC Central Bank Vault, they were taken to the local government.
“By the time they got to the local government of Oredo, the capital city, they were attacked. APC thugs, named thugs, went there, attacked them, but the INEC had to issue a statement. The INEC acknowledged that, then had to issue a statement that none of the materials were missing or lost. The following day, they were supposed to deploy. By 5pm, they were supposed to be at the RAC centres. But at midnight, I left there at midnight, they still were not there. So this was the build-up to election day.
“Don’t forget, we say election is a process, it’s not an event, it’s a process. And all these things leading up to the ultimate voting, the fault lines were already established, there were problems with them. So, my own polling unit, for example, materials did not come there, personnel and materials did not get there until after 10 pm. This is a walking distance from the RAC centre.
“But past 10am, they got there, they spent about 30 minutes trying to set up and eventually, voting did not commence until about 10am. So, logistics challenges were there. BIVAS worked perfectly for me, but in some places, there were reports that it didn’t work as well. But most of the time, in my own polling unit and the adjoining polling units, it worked fairly well. The process went on smoothly after the initial hitch, and then we went for coalition. Coalition was delayed. The drama started after the ward collation.”
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