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The Katsina State
governor, Ibrahim Shema, has embarked on a final effort charm offensive
in the state as he seeks re-election in under a fortnight’s time.

A member of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Shema watched on over the weekend
as the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) swept most of the
parliamentary seats.

During an
interactive session conducted in Hausa at the Government House
yesterday, Mr Shema swiftly granted several requests of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) which led a delegation of over 12 labour unions
cutting across pensioners and civil servants in health, judiciary,
education, and other public sectors.

In a bid to pacify
the workers, all demanding for better working conditions, Mr Shema
upturned the dismissal of over 70 state workers discharged for
fraudulent acts in 2003 when late President Umaru Yar’Adua was the
state governor. The present governor, as a goodwill gesture, commuted
their dismissal to retirement to enable the penalised workers obtain
their terminal benefits.

Further aiming to
curry favour with the labour unions, the Katsina State governor gave
out brand new vehicles to the Nigeria Union of Pensioners and the
National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). He also
promised to look into their requests for more office space.

Journalists too

To appease the
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) which had long requested for a
secretariat, Mr Shema gave out the old Nigerian Television Authority
(NTA) building for their use. He also promised to look into increasing
the salaries of journalists working in state-owned media organisations.

Mr Shema also
conceded to health workers in the state who had been on strike for over
a month over the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary
Scheme (CONMESS). An official suspension of the strike was agreed upon
at the meeting.

The governor
listened and promised to address the complaints of the Nigeria Union of
Teachers on delays in the payment of pensions and gratuities,
non-payments of rural posting allowance, bereavement allowance to
members of families of deceased staff, and other allowances. He
promised to extend the benefits given to staff of tertiary institutions
to other levels of education in the state.

Unfair promotions

To complaints of an
unfair promotions process in the civil service, Mr Shema said
promotions would henceforth be based on the length of time staff spent
in a position and no longer on promotion exams. He further promised to
look into the N18,000 minimum wage demanded by the labour unions once
the federal government circular to the effect is released.

In the past week,
Mr Shema has held several meetings with school children,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other groupings. The
governor’s gesture is largely seen as a wooing tactic to win votes
following the massive defeat of the PDP by the CPC which claimed all
three senatorial slots and 12 of the 14 federal constituency seats
where elections held in the state at the concluded national assembly
elections.

All the major
opposition parties in Ebonyi State have called for the cancellation of
the result of the last national assembly election in the state,
following what they described as massive irregularities in the exercise.

The parties,
including the Accord Party (AP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All
Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
and the People’s Democratic Convention (PDC) warned that subsequent
elections in the state will be accompanied by bloodshed if the last one
was not cancelled.

The leaders of the
party, who addressed a world press conference held at Abakaliki, the
Ebonyi state capital, accused officials of employing state machinery to
work against the opposition.

“It is sad and
regrettable that while the elections in other states of the federation
are being commended, it was a brazen show of shame in Ebonyi to return
the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to power by all means by the
combined forces of PDP government officials, the Army and INEC ad-hoc
electoral officials. The conduct of the election was against all known
laws and regulations guiding election process in the country,” they
said.

The parties stated
that contrary to the much-advertised rules of INEC that the appointment
of electoral officials, notably the collation officers and returning
officers, shall be from state institutions and agencies, all the
collation and returning officers in the election were appointed from
staff of the Ebonyi State-owned university.

The parties said
the returning officers, despite protests from other political parties,
accepted falsified figures that were not signed by presiding officers.
“These results were all recorded in favour of the PDP. This happened in
most wards in Ikwo and Izzi local Government Areas,” they said.

How it was done

The opposition
parties further alleged that the election was characterised by brazen
diversion of electoral materials to private homes by thugs, in
collaboration with soldiers and policemen.

Agitations over the outcome of last Saturday’s
National Assembly elections continued yesterday in Rivers State with
some opposition parties seeking alternatives to get their grievances
addressed. The People’s Democratic Party had swept Saturday’s polls,
based on results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission of
Nigeria. But between Sunday and Monday, opposition parties issued
statements condemning the conduct of the elections, with the Action
Congress of Nigeria calling for a cancellation. Yesterday, the All
Progressives Grand Alliance took their discontent a step further by
sending a petition to the electoral commission’s chair, Attahiru Jega.
The five-page petition was titled “Electoral Malpractices and Other
Irregularities in Rivers State During the National Assembly elections
held on Saturday, April 9, 2011.” It was signed by Terry Godfrey, the
state chairman of the party and Precious Barido, its secretary. The
inspector-general of police and director of the Department of State
Services were also copied in the petition. Copies of the petition were
given to journalists around 2pm yesterday after a press briefing at the
Celestine Omehia Campaign Organisation headquarters, in Port Harcourt.
Mr Omehia is APGA’s governorship candidate for Rivers State.

The petition

In the petition, APGA complained of “police brutality
and intimidation”, and “criminal interference of government officials
in election matters”.

“In ward one (1) of Abua/Odual Local Government Area of Rivers
State, the Divisional Police Officer for Abua, Uche Mike Chukwuma,
intimidated and brutalized persons who turned out to vote in Units 2,
3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 of the ward.
The action disrupted the voting process in the units identified above.
But inspite of this, fictitious election results were declared in the
same units,” read a point in the petition.

The headquarters of
the Delta State police command and that of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in Asaba were yesterday taken over by
aggrieved voters from Delta North senatorial district to protest the
alleged abduction of their returning officer at Ika North federal
constituency after last Saturday’s National Assembly election.

All activities at
the INEC office were grounded as the protesters took over the road to
the commission. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) left the
state last Sunday for Abuja, where he took part yesterday in a meeting
with the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega and other state RECs.

The protesters
first stormed the police command headquarters as early as 8 am in
solidarity with the returning officer, Godwin Avioro whom they alleged
was abducted by thugs suspected to be loyal to the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) senatorial candidate in the election, Ifeanyi Okowa and
forced him to announce the results from the constituency.

Peter Onoriode, who
spoke for the protesters, also called for the removal of the state REC,
Gabriel Ada Ogbudu, ahead of Saturday’s presidential election.

Irregularities discovered

Mr Avioro, who
narrated his ordeal to newsmen at the Delta State police command, said
he actually cancelled the results in the federal constituency based on
widespread electoral irregularities in the election.

“We notice that they have two lists, one of the list contains NYSC
members and another one was separated a day before the election and the
names of the Corps members were substituted for villagers and relatives
of the candidate contesting the election. We investigated this and
discovered the truth,” he said. “We also discovered that about 25 Corps
members protested against it and it was at the strength of this that we
felt it was necessary for another election to be conducted at Ika North
East local government.”

Benue State leaders
of the Action Congress of Nigeria yesterday protested weekend’s loss in
the senatorial election, accusing the ruling party of rigging and
asking the Independent National Electoral Commission to call for new
elections.

Former governor of
the state, George Akume; a current senator, Joseph Akaakerger and the
party’s candidate for the Benue South seat, Lawrence Onoja and other
top party leaders stormed the INEC office yesterday in protest and
submitted petitions to the office of the chairman, Attahiru Jega.

“This rubbish is
being celebrated in Abuja but elsewhere, there were sham,” Mr Akume
said at the commission’s office in Abuja on Tuesday. “This election
must be cancelled because they are useless, and we keep preaching
one-man one-vote in Abuja. Let us be sincere if we don’t want elections
in this country. Let us say no to elections.”

Coming days before
the presidential election and more than a week to the governorship
polls, the demand for cancellation by the party members is part of a
growing discontent from political parties over the widely lauded polls.

Mr Onoja, who
challenges the return of the senate president, David Mark, was the
first to arrive INEC premises yesterday. He rejected the election
results and called for a rerun in what appears to be a potentially
long-drawn legal contest.

“The election that
took place there is not what you should call election. It was a
tragedy,” he said. “If election that took place in Benue South is
anything to go by, then I think we have a long way to go.”

Rejected soul

Later in the day,
Messrs Akume and Akaakerger, joined by the state party leaders, arrived
at the commission with the same charge. The former governor is
contesting for Benue North West seat which was postponed by INEC to
April 26. Mr Akaakerger was defeated by Barnabas Gemade in results
announced Sunday for the North East seat.

Delta State
recorded the highest cases of ballot box snatching in Saturday’s
National Assembly election, followed by Bayelsa and Imo states, the
Independent National Electoral Commission said yesterday.

The chairman of the
commission, Attahiru Jega, said the three states topped the chart of
incidences of diverted ballot boxes, amongst several other poll
malpractices but gave no specific figure.

An official of the
commission, however, said the highest number of the violation recorded
by Delta State during the relatively well-conducted election was nearly
50.

A spread of
detailed statistics of malpractices, including violence, diversion of
materials, lateness of officials and materials, during the elections on
state-by-state basis was expected from the commission on Monday. Mr.
Jega’s spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, later said there were problems with
the analysis of the data and the information would be made available
Tuesday.

Large-scale malpractice

While addressing
international observer teams, including the Commonwealth, African Union
and the National Democratic Institute, Mr. Jega said the worst cases of
the breaches, were recorded in the three states.

“There were
problems with thuggery. Luckily the police have made a number of
arrests in fact earlier today I got information that the police have
arrested over 500 people, many of them thugs,” he said.

“Delta is a state where we received most cases of ballot box snatching followed by Bayelsa and then followed by Imo states”.

Mr. Jega’s remarks
came as a growing number of political parties that lost in the
elections, laid complaints to the commission, amid concerns that the
overwhelming success of the election generally could deny attention on
genuine cases of violations no matter how minute they may appear.

The parties blamed
their defeat on large scale rigging by the ruling parties, ballot paper
stuffing and box snatching and demanded a rerun and redeployment of
INEC staff alleged to have been compromised.

In Bayelsa State
where one of the most damning cases of violence was recorded, the
opposition parties accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
of hijacking electoral materials in connivance with security operatives
including the police, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and some INEC
officials.

The parties, led by
the Labour Party (LP) Chairman in the state, Addo Badou, and the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) told the electoral commission that elections
did not hold in six local government areas of the state. They demanded
the immediate removal of the State Resident Electoral Commissioner,
Edwin Nwatalari, for alleged connivance with the politicians.

‘Cancel the poll’

In Kwara State
where the PDP dominated in the election according to results announced,
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sunday threatened to contest the
results of the elections. Opposition parties have made similar calls in
Benue, Adamawa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

There are concerns
as to whether new measures including complex ballot paper security,
voters waiting behind to defend their votes and a customized ballot
box, are enough to deal with intricate electoral fraud scheme which
exploits human factor for a compromise.

In the case of Akwa
Ibom state where a raging rivalry between ruling PDP and the ACN
supporters recently reached violent dimensions, the parties say there
abound heaps of questions about the exercise and the commission says
they would be investigated when properly tabled before it.

After a startling
defeat margin on Saturday, the ACN has been quick to dismiss the
outcome of the elections and asked for a repeat as well as the removal
of the REC in that state, Maria Owi.

In a detailed
petition to Mr. Jega signed by the state chairman, Aniekan Akpan, the
party claims many of its agents were chased off from collation centres
by paid security agents siding with the ruling party while some corps
members were compelled to release surplus ballot papers to the party.

“Unused ballot
papers were not returned but were given to PDP members who used palm
kernels or bitter kola nuts to print in place of thumbs! What an
innovation,” the party said in the letter which spokesperson to Mr.
Jega, Kayode Idowu, said he could not confirm whether it had been
received as of Monday noon.

In a particular
case, in Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state, all registered
voters in the state voted for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP),
according to the announced results, leaving no allowance for voters who
died, travelled, took ill.

By yesterday, INEC headquarters could not confirm the total number
of petitions it has received already on the Saturday election.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria ( ACN) and other opposition parties in Rivers State have
criticised the conduct of Saturday’s National Assembly elections in the
state, calling for the cancellation of the poll.

The results of the
election released by the Independent National Electoral Commission on
Sunday showed the Peoples Democratic Party was victorious in all 12
federal constituencies and the three Senatorial districts where
elections were held.

The ACN, however, claims the victory was earned through voter manipulation and rigging.

“In the collation
centres, our agents were refused entry by the Joint Task Force and the
Police. There were no results sheets in many areas of the state, such
as Khana, Degema, Gokana, Tai, Oyigbo, Obio/Akpor, Opobo/Nkoro, Onelga,
Andoni,” read the ACN statement, which was signed by Uche Okwukwu, the
state chairman of the party.

Similarly, Otonye
Briggs, the governorship candidate of the Congress for Political
Change, yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the
elections.

Mr Briggs said his
party was denied an opportunity to fully participate in the process as
there was no level playing field for political parties in the state.

He also accused
loyalists of the ruling PDP of intimidating and harassing CPC members
and supporters. In the course of the elections, he said, one of the
party’s members was killed in Abonnema, the capital of Akuku-Toru Local
Government Area.

Mr Briggs added
that the killing was the manifestation of acts of repression against
the party in the state. He, however, urged supporters of the party to
come out en masse for subsequent elections and vote for the CPC.

Barthlomew
Emuekperi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance also said his party
has problems with the elections. “No doubt, the elections were bad,” he
said when asked about his party’s reaction to the conduct and outcome
of the polls.

Mr Emuekperi said the party will be issuing an official statement on the elections.

No petitions

Despite the
complaints, none of the parties could confirm if they had written an
official petition to INEC. As at press time, neither the Resident
Electoral Commissioner, Aniedi Ikoiwak nor the Public Affairs Officer
of the Commission could be reached for comments on the matter.

The director of the Rotimi Amaechi campaign organisation, Ezebunwo
Nyesom Wike, said the allegations were false and challenged the
opposition to provide proof to back their claims.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria in Kwara State on Monday staged a protest in Ilorin
rejecting the outcome of Saturday’s National Assembly election that
gave the ruling Peoples Democratic Party a sweep to victory in the
state.

The protesters
alleged that the ruling party colluded with some INEC presiding
officers to influence the outcome of the poll, claiming that its
candidates were clearly leading at the wards level before the general
collation.

The peaceful
protest which was held in some parts of the state capital was, however,
planned to be heightened if INEC refuses to meet the protesters demand
for an investigation of the matter.

The ACN
governorship candidate in the state, Mohammed Dele Belgore, led the
protest with hundreds of youth holding brooms and chanting anti-ruling
party songs.

Also at the rally
were the Kwara ACN Caretaker Committee Chairman, Kayode Olawepo;
Senatorial Candidate (Kwara Central), Ibrahim Oloriegbe; Senatorial
Candidate (South), Anu Ibiwoye; Senatorial Candidate (North), Musa
Audu; and other party members.

Victory though the courts

Addressing the
rally, Mr. Belgore thanked the people of the state for their turn out
at the polls, declaring that “we know that they voted for us massively,
but their mandate was stolen.”

He, however, urged
the people not to “despair because we will restore this mandate through
the legal means. But let it be clear to these riggers that it can no
longer be business as usual.

“We will no longer
allow anybody to impose himself or herself on our people. The people of
Kwara want a change and this was what they demonstrated last Saturday
when they trooped out in thousands to vote for the ACN. But this
mandate was stolen. We will help our candidates to reclaim their stolen
mandate, no matter what. We urge our people to be calm and not to
resort to violence.”

He described the
rally as a means to send a strong message to election riggers and their
collaborators to desist henceforth, maintaining that the party “won the
election with a landslide but they manipulated the outcome in
continuation of the status quo. This will not stand.”

The party, through
its chairman, however, said that it will address a press briefing today
on the outcome of the election, saying the statement will adddress
issues of violent intimidation of the voters in areas like Asa,
Ifelodun where he alleged ACN agents were arrested and kept out of
circulation until the end of the election.

However when the
police spokesperson, Dabo Ezekiel was called at the end of the election
on Saturday, he told next that nobody was arrested throughout the
election, claiming that he was coming from the state CID to see the
situation of things there.

A day after the
election, reports of an arrest of 23 thugs was however announced but
Mr. Ezekiel refused to comment on the development when contacted.

However, the ruling party chairman, Yusuf Ayedun has also debunked
the allegation of rigging saying that whoever is not satisfied could go
to any length to get justice.

Delta State
recorded the highest cases of ballot box snatching in Saturday’s
National Assembly election, followed by Bayelsa and Imo states, the
Independent National Electoral Commission said yesterday.

The chairman of the
commission, Attahiru Jega, said the three states topped the chart of
incidences of diverted ballot boxes, amongst several other poll
malpractices but gave no specific figure.

An official of the
commission, however, said the highest number of the violation recorded
by Delta State during the relatively well-conducted election was nearly
50.

A spread of
detailed statistics of malpractices, including violence, diversion of
materials, lateness of officials and materials, during the elections on
state-by-state basis was expected from the commission on Monday. Mr.
Jega’s spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, later said there were problems with
the analysis of the data and the information would be made available
Tuesday.

Large-scale malpractice

While addressing
international observer teams, including the Commonwealth, African Union
and the National Democratic Institute, Mr. Jega said the worst cases of
the breaches, were recorded in the three states.

“There were
problems with thuggery. Luckily the police have made a number of
arrests in fact earlier today I got information that the police have
arrested over 500 people, many of them thugs,” he said.

“Delta is a state where we received most cases of ballot box snatching followed by Bayelsa and then followed by Imo states”.

Mr. Jega’s remarks
came as a growing number of political parties that lost in the
elections, laid complaints to the commission, amid concerns that the
overwhelming success of the election generally could deny attention on
genuine cases of violations no matter how minute they may appear.

The parties blamed
their defeat on large scale rigging by the ruling parties, ballot paper
stuffing and box snatching and demanded a rerun and redeployment of
INEC staff alleged to have been compromised.

In Bayelsa State
where one of the most damning cases of violence was recorded, the
opposition parties accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
of hijacking electoral materials in connivance with security operatives
including the police, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and some INEC
officials.

The parties, led by
the Labour Party (LP) Chairman in the state, Addo Badou, and the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) told the electoral commission that elections
did not hold in six local government areas of the state. They demanded
the immediate removal of the State Resident Electoral Commissioner,
Edwin Nwatalari, for alleged connivance with the politicians.

‘Cancel the poll’

In Kwara State
where the PDP dominated in the election according to results announced,
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sunday threatened to contest the
results of the elections. Opposition parties have made similar calls in
Benue, Adamawa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

There are concerns
as to whether new measures including complex ballot paper security,
voters waiting behind to defend their votes and a customized ballot
box, are enough to deal with intricate electoral fraud scheme which
exploits human factor for a compromise.

In the case of Akwa
Ibom state where a raging rivalry between ruling PDP and the ACN
supporters recently reached violent dimensions, the parties say there
abound heaps of questions about the exercise and the commission says
they would be investigated when properly tabled before it.

After a startling
defeat margin on Saturday, the ACN has been quick to dismiss the
outcome of the elections and asked for a repeat as well as the removal
of the REC in that state, Maria Owi.

In a detailed
petition to Mr. Jega signed by the state chairman, Aniekan Akpan, the
party claims many of its agents were chased off from collation centres
by paid security agents siding with the ruling party while some corps
members were compelled to release surplus ballot papers to the party.

“Unused ballot
papers were not returned but were given to PDP members who used palm
kernels or bitter kola nuts to print in place of thumbs! What an
innovation,” the party said in the letter which spokesperson to Mr.
Jega, Kayode Idowu, said he could not confirm whether it had been
received as of Monday noon.

In a particular
case, in Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state, all registered
voters in the state voted for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP),
according to the announced results, leaving no allowance for voters who
died, travelled, took ill.

By yesterday, INEC headquarters could not confirm the total number
of petitions it has received already on the Saturday election.

The Chairman of the
Senate Committee on Appropriation, Iyiola Omisore, has accepted the
verdict of the people of his constituency in the last Saturday election
where he lost his bid to return to the senate to Babajide Omoworare of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The ACN won all seats for Osun
State in the National Assembly.

Speaking with
journalists yesterday, the senator, who represents Osun East in the
Upper chambers of the National Assembly, commended the turnout of the
people and peaceful conduct of the election, saying all point to a
hopeful future for the nation’s democracy.

Mr. Omisore, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is currently in his second term in the national legislature.

While
congratulating the winners, Mr. Omisore said the results of the
election confirms the readiness of President Goodluck Jonathan to give
the nation credible elections this time, and ensure that every eligible
Nigerian voter is not denied the right to choose their leaders and
representatives.

“I want to first
congratulate all the winners in last Saturday’s National Assembly
election. The peaceful conduct of the election was a clear signal that
our democracy has come to stay and that our politicians are improving.
Politics is a game of win and lose. If you win, you take it, if you
lost too, you should accept it in good faith. That is how we can
nurture our democracy into full maturity,” he enthused.

According to him,
the success of the first round of elections will prove to the world
that Nigerians are ready to allow democracy to thrive in their country,
adding “we cannot afford to fail because all eyes are on us. We need
credible and successful elections in this nation”.

He explained that
the result of the last election, especially in the Southwest, shows
that the ruling PDP was not as desperate as it had been portrayed in
the past by the oppositions, describing the party as one that ‘upholds
the tenets of democracy’.

The former deputy
governor of Osun State, advised the winning ACN members not to see
their victory as a ticket for self-serving mission, but a call to serve
the nation and opportunity to contribute their quota to the development
of their constituencies.

“The result of the
National Assembly elections should be regarded as the wish of the
electorate which we politicians must respect to safeguard the nation’s
growing democracy. In a true democracy, you don’t expect to be winning
every time. Even, life itself is about give and take,” he said.

He urged Nigerians
to be ready to participate fully in the remaining legs of this year’s
general elections, submitting that giving them priorities is the only
way to move the nation forward.

For this week’s
presidential election, Mr. Omisore said, “this is our country, all the
eligible voters must be ready to perform their civic duty by voting for
leaders of their choice”.