Pastor Leo Olu Martins, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) in Edo State, who is one of the conveners of the now aborted planned one year memorial rally of the September 21 governorship election in the State, is still in shock on how the top hierachy of the party including the party’s candidate at the poll, Asue Ighodalo and his deputy governorship candidate, Osarodion Ogie ditched him and his co conveners when they were undergoing drilling by the Department of State Services on their now aborted plans.
Responding to enquiries in an exclusive chat, he said: “Sunday 21st is going to be exactly one year that that election(Edo governorship) took place. We considered it a rape on democracy. We considered it a heist because as at 8pm that Saturday evening 95 percent of the result had already come in through iRev and we were already rejoicing. I had people who were congratulating me from APC ‘so you guys won the election.’ until the things that happened happened. Like the Englishman will say the rest is history.
“One year down the line we are still hurting. We’re still dissatisfied. We still feel cheated not because we’re bad losers but because if you won me fair and square I will subscribe to your victory. But if you didn’t win me fair and square and I saw my victory in front of me and you stole it from me no matter what happens, years later I am still going to be complaining.
“Some people had argued that but the Supreme Court has decided on the case. I said yes, but there’s a court of public opinion. I have a right to hold my views inspite of what the Supreme Court had said. They’re my personal views. And in my personal views it’s my conviction that inspite of the Supreme Court judgement we(PDP) were cheated in that election. We were raped because the bulk of what the Supreme Court talked about hovered around technicalities not really on the substance of the matter. So, we still feel aggrieved, we feel hurt. It was on that basis that we said let us do a memorial rally that’s what we called it.
“We thought just to keep the matter fresh in the minds of people that by this time last year we were looking at our victory but we never got it. When that came out a couple of people considered the security implications of it especially since the ruling party (APC) both at the federal and state level have seem to have done a lot of investment in the usage of thugs, touts, jobless young people whom they have engaged to intimidate people who hold opposing views from their own.
“We saw in Lagos in the Presidential election(2023) how a prominent street figure, MC Oluomo, was literally threatening people. In Edo State, we have seen, in this case, some of them SSA(Senior Special Assistants) to the Governor practically threatening people saying that they were going to do this and do that. Even to the extent of threatening the life of individuals.”
According to him, “we looked at it and we just thought there will be no need to jeopardize the lives of people for something that we can’t change. If we cannot change it we are forced to accept it. There were other people who thought an intellectual engagement which is what we have decided to fall back to. Like a town hall on electoral reforms using September 21st as a case study on the need to legalize results that come from iRev. We need to begin to adopt technology.
“Some people have thought that it makes sense to have those kind of town hall engagements where we can start pushing for electoral reforms in the light of the things that happened during the election a year ago. Preponderance of opinion. So we called it off and said there would be no need because the bulk of our own people who would have attended had subscribed to the fact that lets have an intellectual jaw jaw. Lets have something that would produce a document. Fallout of this outing after much jaw jaw we are producing this document. That’s what we decided to do.”
Speaking on how he became a guest of the Department of State Services(DSS) “moreover, just a day after we came out publicly with the idea we got a couple of calls from the Department of State Services(DSS) who had a rapport with us on the 15th September and appealed to us that in the light of what happened in Nepal we couldn’t tell what that kind of rally could lead to especially for those of us who have had a history of been on the street in terms of protest, campaigns and rallies.
“It was an appeal they made to us that why don’t we employ other means of engagement. We didn’t see that though. We were kind of blindsided to that. But because the approach of the DSS was civil, very mature they gave us the implications of it. We want a peaceful country. At the risk of sounding philosophical the worst democracy they say is still better than the best military rule. That’s one of the reasons we postponed it.”
On the APC Chairman, Emperor Jarret Tenebe, “see the kinds of statements the Chairman of the APC has made in recent times. They’re enough to cause chaos, to cause crisis but nobody says anything about it. The governor doesn’t even warn him because if he says one today you will think that because of the backlash he won’t say another one. He would say a worst thing tomorrow. What it means is that somebody is fuelling him and even hailing him for making such statements. How many people can allow their children to listen to what the Chairman of the APC is saying?”
On how the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, and other top notchers of the party ditched him and his co conveners of the botched rally: “None of us who convene the meeting contested for any election and we were not. We were not the dramatis personae. There’s a candidate for the election. There’s a Chairman of the party. There’s a deputy governorship candidate for the election and leaders of the party.
“And can I quickly add that as all of this was going on the idea was to keep that election and indeed the PDP in the minds of the people. We didn’t get a call from the top hierarchy of the party not from the Chairman. Not from any critical stakeholder at that level. Not a call. Not to even encourage us.
“The more damning one is that the dramatis personae. The individual himself, that’s Dr. Asue Ighodalo. He didn’t even call us once to identify with us. You guys I like what you’re doing. But hold on can we talk about it. When we said that the DSS was grilling us the only response to it was whether we ran the programme by the party Chairman. Not about our safety. Not that why is the DSS after you? Can we deal with that first of all? It’s not about our safety.
“For him it’s about processing. Did we run it by the Chairman? So if we didn’t run it by the Chairman, as they say here, anything you see take it like that. That was heartbreaking for me. And that experience was documented. He didn’t even ask what’s happening. As we speak now since finishing with the DSS nobody has called to show solidarity. You see why people resign from political parties?”
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