By Sunny Igboanugo
No crime is perfect. No matter how flawlessly planned or watertight a crime is or how thoroughly executed, criminals always leave one trace or two or even more. There is always a slip that a good investigator looks out for to crack a case no matter how tough.
The November 8, Anambra state governorship election, met all elements of a carefully planned and thoroughly executed electoral fraud. Yes! That’s what it was or is – a fraud – a heist. But I must give it to them. All those who took part in it played their roles perfectly.
But then – the slip! It came from Unit 008 Agulu Ward in Anaocha Local Government Area, the polling booth of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the February 25, 2023, election.
In many cases, such slips are usually the result of an innocuous action – one second of thoughtlessness – one word out of sync – an emotional outburst, or just one careless move – then everything comes crumbling.
In the instant case, nobody, except those who planned it, would probably explain how such a thoughtless decision came about. Mind you, I wasn’t just an observer; I was a participant observer.
I was the Director of Media and Publicity of the John Chuma Nwosu (JCN) Campaign Council of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). So, I was in the locus in quo – or as Bishop Kukah would say – the scene of the crime.
So, long before the election, I was aware about the plot. Words had filtered in about how Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the governor wanted to “disgrace” Obi in Agulu. My conclusion was that he was billed to capturing the ward for himself to score a political point, using his own winning template.
Alas! How was I to know that he planned to donate the trophy to the APC? But in that singular move lies the singular factor that cast a question mark on the credibility of the entire process. It ruined what would have been and iron-cast case. For even a complete imbecile knows that the outcome is a clearly electoral impossibility!
Were there some thinking members within their camp, they ought to have known that the public would be asking what had changed so soon after in an atmosphere where the same Peter Obi, won virtually 100 per cent of the votes cast in the same unit in 2023? What sins did he commit in just two years that made his people now hate him such that they were so intent on punishing him?
Soludo and his minders never supplied information as to how the APC performed the feat. Yes! For the governor, it would have been part of the effect of turning communities in Anambra into the new African haven, surpassing the Dubai-Taiwan he promised the people. But a lowly political figure like Nicholas Ukachukwu, the question is – quo warranto? On what authority?
But, you didn’t need be a political genius or mathematician to figure it out. Even someone struck with Mongolian idiocy disease could put two and two together to determine what happened.
It was a clear expression of how the nation’s electoral process has been captured – how the huge edifice that was the election architecture has now crumbled from the moment Mahmoud Yakubu, the now disgraced former INEC Chairman, practically threw a dynamite at the foundation with his IReV glitches episode.
Since that notorious February 25, 2023, affair, which produced Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President, the nation’s electoral process has continued to sink deeper at every turn, beginning with the governorship election of March 18 after the presidential polls.
You could see the effect in the Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa editions some eight months after, on November 11, that year, where the governors swept the polls regardless of the readings of the political barometers in their states. You heard in Kogi, how prepared results were either in the hands of agents of the ruling party or already being uploaded on IReV hours before the elections were held.
The world was also regaled with video evidence of how APC almost captured 100 per cent votes in Imo with its 27-27 electoral feat. Of course, the Edo edition on September 21, last year, is there to confirm the new template. So, when Soludo came with his 21-21 edition, only the non-initiate, perhaps somewhere from outer space, would be enamoured.
The amusing aspect of the outcome, if not the tragic, depending on the way you look at it is the absolute lack of emotional intelligence in managing the outcome. Pray! What was the need for the Agulu ward show? To humiliate Obi or to get a pound of flesh for Tinubu? It would have been a different kettle of fish if APGA, Soludo’s party had won it.
In that case, it would have been excused as part of the tsunami of an incumbent. But Ukachukwu of APC? From whence did he produce the genie capable of creating such magic?
id he sink a water facility and reticulate the pipes supplying each household in Agulu with free water overnight?
If anything, the last time I checked, it was the selfsame Obi that donated a whopping N90million and two INNOSON vehicles for the security of the same community that now decided to “disgrace” him.
Was the so-called disgrace their way of saying thank you for such a bold step towards their security and welfare? These Agulu people must be the perfect example of current-day Brutus, whose dagger-blow ended it for Julius Caesar.
But you must be a clear simpleton not to get the drift. What just happened in Anambra is no different from the Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa, and most recently, Edo. It is a situation where INEC simply hands over the electoral machinery and organs to whosoever they favoured, ostensibly based on the direct orders or body language of the powers that be.
It is then the remit of the assignee, mostly favoured governors, to determine who wins where and with what margin. Then, you find that in virtually all the cases, and typical of what happens in the local government elections, which they conduct, they go for the total kill, taking no prisoners.
So, obviously, Soludo’s winning streak was no magic.
It came from the same gift bag as others before him. So, as in other cases, it was his choice to decide where to win and with what margin. That was what was demonstrated at Agulu. He simply dashed the unit to the APC as if with a pack of candies.
But only that in doing so, he practically spilled the beans. Or how else would he not have known that he practically exposed what ought to have been hidden and shot himself in the foot by so doing? But what could you say of someone so desperate?
Since Obi defeated Tinubu roundly in Lagos in the last presidential election, the camp of the President has remained implacable. All the onslaughts mounted against the former governor within the APC and those eager to please him, have their roots substantially from this.
Ostensibly, Soludo must have keyed into the prevailing sentiments. Either he promised it as part of the bargains he signed into during his in and out movement at the Presidential Villa or it was a solo effort. In other words, the Agulu show, must have been a move to assuage the Villa or is it Bourdillon now?
Incidentally, the way it was celebrated by the media, obviously part of the plot – procured to trumpet it to the world with such screaming headlines – Obi loses his ward – and the manner Soludo himself made a song and dance about it, one thing is sure – there is more to come from that November 8 outcome.
You could be sure that it was a dress rehearsal. If Obi manages to find himself on the ballot in 2027, he is probably going to lose not only Anambra but the same Agulu. Of course, the ample explanation would be obvious – he has lost it before.
Guess who would be there not only to ensure, but explain it – Your Charles Chukwuma Soludo – Charlie Nwa Mgbafo. As for the people’s will – your guess! It’s called State Capture! Tragedy!
- Source: Sunny Igboanugo Facebook Wall
