By
Hon. Rahman Owokoniran
I found the video clip on Lagos State’s Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat’s interview with “Sunrise Daily” programme on Channels TV unbelievable and amazing.
Obviously, Hamzat was at the studio to challenge the claim by Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the Gubernatorial Candidate for PDP, to losing the Lagos election due to violence perpetrated by APC , government security apparatus and INEC.
According to Hamzat, three polling stations out of 1,545 in Alimosho and 349 out of 13,325 units in the entire state of Lagos (just 1 percent), suffered violent episodes. Hamzat said 1 percent is such an insignificant proposition of 13,325 units to affect the election results in Lagos.
That assertion of Hamzat is preposterous. It is a flagrant disregard for law and order. Why must violence be enthroned in the first instance? Hamzat confused his presentation to Lagosians with academics. Talking to the people who lived through the process and felt the weight of the violence is different from the thesis written in school where you use hypothetical or empirical studies to rationalize your thoughts and presentation.
Back to the subject of violence in 349 of 13,325 units in the State, according to Hamzat, this was such an insignificant number that it could not affect the results of the election. I know that Hamzat is a student of logic but he conveniently decided to gloss over the facts.
Firstly, the type of violence we witnessed did not target polling units. It targeted communities with varying polling units of eight to 10. Look at Lekki-Epe major road occupied by Oro rites. How many polling units does Hamzat think were displaced in the communities in that neighborhood? There are about six to 10 units in most of the schools in Lagos, which were targeted by the hoodlums.
Also, in most estates in Lagos, you have an average of 20 APC vigilante operatives in each polling unit, threatening voters to either vote APC or go back home. Many would rather go back home disenfranchised than vote and be maimed or killed. Yet, this does not fall within Hamzat categorization of violence-infested areas. This happened in many estates in Lagos.
Hamzat’s reference to violence-infested units must have been only in areas where people were maimed, suffered injuries or were killed. It could possibly refer to where ballot boxes were openly snatched. Hamzat’s presentation is a far cry from the reality that Lagosians witnessed. Should the foreign observers share Hamzat’s view as presented, they would not have raised the red flag on the outcome of the election.
I am particularly appalled by his romance with violence. Should violence be tolerated by the ruling party in any shape?
Why coerce voters in a democracy? It a violation of the tenets of democracy and therefore should not stand. Voters are allowed freedom of choice in a free and fair process to elect their representatives and executives. Where that choice is taken away from the people, democracy ceased.
It cannot be true that violence only took place in 349 units. Visit an area with a gun or any form of violent weapon and see if the persons you pointed to will be the only once affected. I assure you that the whole community will hear the news and flee. In this case of violence on Election Day, where several communities are continuously connected to one another, the impact spreads faster than lightning.
Mr. Deputy Governor, beyond the violent attacks was your party, APC’s real intention to manipulate the results of the election. You actually achieved this. The violent attacks were intended to achieve two objectives:
1) Prevent voters front exercising their rights to vote.
2) Ward off the people from protecting their votes.
So if you couldn’t have it totally your way by preventing voters from casting their votes, you will then go for the onslaught by preventing the voters from protecting their votes at the collation centres.
How do you quantify the violence unleashed at the collation centres? Your pontification did not go there at all. You kept this fact away from the people. When the PDP candidate was making reference to contesting against the security agents, INEC and the ruling party, I believe he was making reference to those activities you kept under the radar. The election results are decided at the collation centres by the agencies mentioned above. This was the more reason why the people advocated for BVAS to have their votes delivered in real time. The collated results in Lagos were not delivered in real time; why? These results can therefore not tally with the BVAS because it couldn’t have accredited over 1 million votes in Lagos.
The reality of Lagos State’s voting pattern on 18th March is that less than 40 percent of voters that turned out for the presidential election actually voted in the governorship election. This means that if 1.5 million voters voted during the presidential election, only 600,000 voted for the governorship. Where did the 1.2 million voters come from that INEC reported?
Simple, figures posted by INEC were votes allocated to the parties, and not BVAS-collated results.
Finally, every party lives with its own problems. You have yours as PDP does too. We understand our internal crisis, which we shall deal with in time. So do mind your own business, Dr. Hamzat. We are very much alert to the reality of the field operations and we are up to the task.
Therefore, Dr. Hamzat, you and your partners are the ones unkind to the people of Lagos.
Two weeks to the elections, you introduced all manners of threats and coercion to suppress opposition-minded voters, so that you could have a free field to perpetrate the evil acts we witnessed on 18th March. Without this your usual resort to a well-honed formula of violence and rigging, your despotic political family knows it cannot win elections. Now you are trying to clean up your mess by wishing away the impact of your damages. Believe me, it is not working . Your attempt to deodorise the Lagos governorship election in that TV interview amounted to an exercise in futility. Live with the stench you created.
HON. RAHMAN OWOKONIRAN IS PDP SOUTH-WEST ZONAL SECRETARY
