“ oshiobaba........... As a Nigerian, I am embarrassed that the police are involved in carrying electoral materials, arresting EDSIEC returning officers and coercing them into a police station and converting it into a collation centre supervised by policemen imported from Abuja and Lagos in order to subvert the will of the people of Esan North East. As a civilised man, I felt ashamed that men in uniform at rather very senior level supervised this criminal act of the police in yesterday’s (Tuesday) election. A federal Minister and other federal functionaries, including Assembly men used their exalted positions, taking unfair advantage of the police assigned to protect them and deployed them for election purposes, detaining returning officers and treating them as if they were prisoners of war and under duress, compelling them to sign fake results and police becoming Returning Officers writing result sheets. But thank God for modern technology that what the people have signed in full freedom is what matters, not what they signed under duress in a police station. The law establishing the electoral commission is very clear, the location for collation of votes is very clear. The location for announcing winners and losers is very clear and it does not include a police station. “Law enforcement officers were involved in converting a police post to a collating center in order to subvert the will of the electorate and for me, it is a matter of national embarrassment. And I want to state that no one will live forever but our reputation will live after us. Temporary gains are not worth our place in hell, if we choose to mortgage what is good in order to sustain evil practices. But Edo State under my watch will not submit to intimidation. My duty is to remain one of the forces of democracy. Neither my voice, nor my physical efforts can be exterminated by the forces of darkness. Anyone who is under the illusion that they can use the instrument of coercion to intimidate us are poor students of history. We are at our best when we are challenged because we know that when we will die cannot be postponed by one day” he asserted. Oshiomhole appealed that “ the Federal authorities and the security agencies should remain faithful to their oath of office which says they shall respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They shall not be influenced by affection but each time they behave in such degrading manner, they violate those office serially and brutally. Yesterday, the police high command in their wisdom chose to turn Esan North East to a police state, such that we had more policemen in that local government than the population of the Local government . If we have such number of policemen, how come we are at the mercy of kidnappers? We have such ruthless determination to deal with decent civilians and yet weak to deal with hardened criminals. I fail to understand that. I fail to understand why the police high command who has the tradition of posting away Commissioners and assigning new ones at the eve of every election, ostensively to ensure that there is fairness and impartiality. “That in the case of Esan North East local Gov ernment election, they chose to bring senior mobile police commanders who are of Uromi origin knowing fully well that the fact of their origin means that they cannot be neutral in matters affecting some sections of that local government. “In their wisdom, those are the officers they chose to deploy believing that they can help to subvert democracy. All of us remains in prison any time we keep quiet in the face of operation.We remain detainees each time we fail to speak our minds even in the face of abuse of office. And we are dead the day we keep quiet in the face of injustice. God gave us life, brain and mouth to speak, not just for nothing. So, I want to appeal to all those who need to listen that this country is greater than any of us. “We want a free and fair election, the police chose to detain very senior APC leaders including the APC candidate for election on election day in order to rub it in that the police rather than the people will decide the winner. The police used instrument procured by our tax payers money including the resources I provided them to conduct this election to brutalize and assault APC members for the simple reason that they are leaders of APC. They hoarded them into cell and according to them, under orders from above, they have moved them to Benin. They can eat their flesh if that gives them some comfort but they cannot eat their soul”.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 23:02:27 +0000
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