What Nigerian politicians cannot destroy has not been created.
The Saturday, February 25th, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections was a sort of an eye opener for election riggers around the country to perfect their game plan of rigging in subsequent elections.
The three weeks stop gap before the Saturday, March 18th, 2023, that the Governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections were held was an opportunity for many politicians, state governors most especially, to oil their rigging machine and perfect their rigging plans.
So don’t be deceived by those incredible figures that were churned out by some governors in defence of their ‘territory’ as they ‘delivered massive votes’ for their parties/preferred candidates. Thus a party that could barely score 20 percent of total votes cast in the previous polls was now able to get more than double that figure. This modus operandi of rigging, of course, is applied in almost all the states by the governors aided by their right-hand men.
No wonder, the governor of a state in the southern part of the country reportedly confided in a friend of his when asked days to the rescheduled poll how he intends to recover from the battering he got in the Presidential/NASS polls where his party could not secure any of the seats in contention. His response was that as the governor of the state he knows what to do to address the failure. That the outcome of future polls would not be that poor for his party and that when they get to that bridge he and his team will cross it effortlessly.
What Mr. Governor said was exactly what happened. Within the three weeks before the next poll, Mr. Governor, hiding under the cover of going into intensive campaign to match what his predecessor was doing genuinely in some parts of the state, resorted to oiling his rigging machine.
On election day he bombarded some polling units with a horde of his boys and even ladies whose duty was to keep voting for his party as much as they wish. From what Popular News gathered exclusively, at such polling booths Mr. Governor made available special vanishing oil for his ‘team of riggers’ which they use to wipe off the indelible ink that the INEC painted their thumb nail with to indicate that they have performed their civic responsibility.
Trust that the ‘governor’s riggers’ could not be challenged as they look so fiery and scary. Also they gathered in very large numbers and will breed no busy body poke nosing into their shady affairs.
In areas where the ‘governor’s riggers’ know that their intimidation of the electorates may be difficult to achieve they resort to gun shooting to scare off the voters and do away with the already stuffed ballot boxes which they suspect were filled with votes for the opposition party. It is better the votes in such localities are not counted so that the chances of the governor’s party winning are not ruined.
Guess you are taking note of some element of connivance between the INEC officials, governor and ruling party officials.
So what role will the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) play in this case? Please if you feel cheated go to court and argue your case. Of course we expect the courts to be busy after now with cases that has to do with the conduct, result and many more of the 2023 general elections. Let’s meet in the courtroom.
