Justice and 2023 Delta Election: Why the announced PDP victory will not stand

VANGUARD

By ‘Tonye Timi

Nigeria just concluded the most controversial election in her history. The nation is in shock as the thinking was that the introduction of technology will cure some of the weaknesses in our electoral system. The unfortunate experience was that criminal minded politicians still found a way to abuse the introduced technology -BVAS- to achieve their obnoxious aims.

There was no place this was so blatantly and rudely in display than Delta, a State where the sitting governor, out of desperation threw caution to the winds, shamelessly harassing, bribing and intimidating the electorate to vote for PDP his party, using all known state machinery. When Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s election as governor of Delta state was annulled in 2010 and a rerun election ordered by the court, it came as an unexpected and disruptive shock which deeply upset the PDP applecart in the state at the time.

The ensuing rerun was the closest Great Ogboru, the instigator of the disruption, got to winning the governorship election in Delta state, aided by Chief E.K Clark and PDP Elders And Stakeholders Forum. The revealed electoral infractions that justified the annulment of that 2007 election was not a tenth as villainous and widespread as the misanthropic and chaotic governorship election conducted in Delta state on 18th of March 2023.

The Delta State governorship and House of Assembly elections was not just rigged, it was a massive heist, planned and executed across the state with the organized precision and skills that can only be achieved by a well rehearsed criminal gang. BIVAS accreditation machines did not record half as many voters as finally recorded in the result sheets. This is true across the twenty five Local Government Areas of the state. Accredited voting records do not have any resemblance with the high volume of votes recorded across Delta state. In some places, recorded votes were twice or three times the number of accredited voters.

In many areas across the state, two or three booklets of ballot papers were removed from the required supplies to polling units and then thumb printed elsewhere and later stuffed into the ballot boxes to be counted along with the valid votes. So the judges in the Delta election petition tribunal must be made to insist on taking due cognizance of the difference between accredited voters and the number of votes counted to achieve the figures that led to the declaration of a winner. If this is done as is required, the election of the PDP candidate cannot stand. So let no one be pumping chests yet.

The Delta election was gerrymandered with a scoffing contempt for the will of the people and a clear confidence that the tribunal judges will be bought over to validate the larceny. Jurisprudence is replete with instances where technology is used to burst well planned and executed crime. So it will be with the Delta State governorship and House of Assembly elections. The governorship election in the state was a well planned and coordinated crime implemented statewide and the outcome of that theft must not be allowed to stand.

Fingerprint experts will reveal the sameness of the thumbprints on the ballot papers and BVAS will have record of total accreditations in each polling unit. So let’s get started. A governor must never again be allowed to emerge from a criminal operation. The 2022 electoral law prescribes clearly what happens to votes in units and areas where over-voting is recorded. The tribunal judges will neither change or ignore facts now embedded in the BIVAS.