POLLS AND PROTESTS

 INEC erred in the manner it computed the final result of the governorship election in Enugu State, argues KEN UGBECHIE

Peter Mbah, a lawyer, is currently sitting as Governor of Enugu State. Thanks to the electoral magic conjured by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This sort of magic is only fit for the stone age. The age when the human mind could not stretch beyond the mundane. INEC brought that age back in what is a brazen electoral robbery. INEC robbed the good people of Enugu, a people famed for civility, hard work, integrity, scholarship and voluble hospitality that has made the state the hub of Nollywood production, political capital of the south east and home to all Nigerians.

This explains the riveting attention on the state’s Electoral Tribunal in a matter between Chijioke Edeoga, himself also a lawyer and the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and Peter Mbah, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On this matter, INEC openly robbed the Enugu electorate. By all reasonable statistics, mathematical computations and electoral morality, Edeoga, the LP candidate won the March 18 governorship election; but INEC by a stroke of electoral magic, gave victory to Mbah. And you just wonder: Why do we as a people delight in making simple matters complex? Why do we prefer the strenuous walk up the cliff to an easy waltz on a straight path?

Here is the portrait of the story: Edeoga and his party, LP, are seeking the following reliefs: An order invalidating the return and declaration of Mbah as the winner of the Enugu State governorship election held on March 18, 2023; an order withdrawing the Certificate of Return issued by INEC to Mbah allegedly as the winner of the election in dispute; and an order directing INEC to issue forthwith to Edeoga the Certificate of Return as the winner of the election.

Edeoga and LP’s petition stands on the props that Mbah was, at the time of the election, not qualified to be a contestant on account of alleged forgery of his NYSC discharge certificate; a certificate already disowned by the alleged issuer, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The matter has since been challenged by Mbah in a court of law. Curiously, a court has issued an ‘order’ restraining NYSC from disclaiming Mbah’s certificate. Let’s get this right. A statutory body of the stature of NYSC says it did not issue the certificate being flaunted by Mbah which he swore under oath and submitted to INEC as validly issued by NYSC. The same NYSC came out boldly to say that the certificate in question does not bear its seal and imprimatur hence was not and could not have been issued by it. Circumstantial evidences surrounding the time of issuance of the certificate, the period Mbah claimed he performed his NYSC duty and his age during the said ‘service’ point to only one thing: Perjury! Somebody lied under oath as well as forged a certificate. But what other evidence is weightier than the alleged issuer of a document openly disclaiming the said document as forged and not its property by way of issuance. Keep that aside.

Let’s examine the simple arithmetic inherent in voter registration, accreditation, casting of ballot and tallying same. That’s the simple election value chain. A clear bolt and nut matter which ought not to be difficult to perform and to understand. But INEC is making such uncomplicated matter more difficult than algebraic equation. This is the basis of Edeoga’s petition; that INEC erred in the manner it computed the final result of the governorship election. In what would pass for a disingenuous electoral punt, INEC swung victory in the direction of Mbah when the ball was visibly right before Edeoga. But it is a primitive, even devious, punt that should never be allowed to stand because it negates all the grains of the Electoral Act, the only valid manual for the election.

Here’s why. At the point of collation of results, the record from INEC showed that voting in 16 of Enugu State’s 17 local government areas produced result as follows for the two leading candidates: Edeoga (LP): 155,697 votes; Peter Mbah (PDP): 143,938 votes. At this point, the difference was 11,759 votes, advantage Edeoga. The outstanding votes were those from Nkanu East, where Mbah hails from. And you wonder why Nkanu East votes would take long in coming. It’s not a riverine LGA. Access to Enugu from Nkanu East is easy to any other LGA, even easier than it is for some other LGAs whose results had been tallied. No big deal. Such delays are not novel in Nigeria election history.

From INEC’s official dashboard, the number of registered voters in Nkanu East was 36,976. The number of voters that collected their PVCs was 27,594. The number of voters accredited to vote on election day was 7,453. Please follow and observe the sequence. Edeoga was already leading by 11,759 votes, far more than the 7,453 accredited voters. Meaning that if per chance Mbah cleared all the votes from his Nkanu East LGA, which is impossible electorally, he would still have lost the election to Edeoga by 4,306 votes. By the rule of simple majority, Edeoga should have been declared winner of the election.

 This meant that, even if Mbah amassed all the votes from his local government and the other candidates each scored zero, he still would have lost to Edeoga by 4,306 votes.

But here’s the twist, the real magic. INEC, obviously on a mission to commit electoral suicide, awarded Edeoga 1,855 votes for Nkanu East and handed Mbah a hefty 30,560 votes in an LGA that recorded only 7,453 accredited voters. The question is, from whence came the differential 24,962 votes? From ghosts and spooks? This is pure electoral phantom phantasm and only INEC is capable of such. If INEC were a human being, by all standards of logic, he should be under the care of an experienced shrink; in the intensive care unit of a psychiatric hospital.

The initial result declared by INEC for Nkanu East drew umbrage, expectedly. This ought to have compelled INEC to undo the damage it did to itself. Never. The electoral umpire merely relapsed into a review mode after it had announced suspension of further collation of results. By the time, INEC emerged from its conclave of ballot review three days later, it treated Enugu people to another thrill of magic. This time, it allocated, yes allocated, 16,956 votes to Mbah and still retained the ‘fixed’ 1,855 votes for Edeoga. Remember that the same INEC had already told the world that only 7,453 voters were accredited to vote in that LGA on that day.

Now, you see why this is not only a show of electoral inanity but also a demonic dance of a desperate entity intent on bringing democracy to harm. INEC is that entity and the Enugu guber case is a dance to the drumbeats from hell. This particular case presents the judiciary a veritable opportunity for self-redemption. The tribunal should not only return the stolen mandate to its rightful owner, it should rebuke INEC for this electoral heist.

Ugbechie is a Journalist