By Ifeoma Ikem
Hon Tari Oba Oliver, PDP Candidate for the State House of Assembly, Ibeju Lekki Constituency 1, has rejected the results of last weekend’s supplementary elections where Hon Mojeed Fatai of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was declared the winner.
Oliver, who said the poll was characterized with gross malpractice and irregularities with the connivance of the regulatory body, INEC, noted that she would seek redress at the Election Petitions Tribunal in order to retrieve her stolen mandate.
In a statement made available to us, Oliver stated: “I will challenge the result by which Hon Fatai of the Apc was declared winner.”(The poll) was marred by voter intimidation, vote buying at polling station and sponsorship of multiple voting by same voters. There was even a skirmish involving an INEC official at one of the polling stations who boldly told our party agents who complained of the gross irregularities that they did not play their game well; and that the election was just mere formality because the result of the election was already known.”
She wondered at the “brazen desperation of the APC to hold onto power at all cost, whether deservedly or not, expressing sadness that the citizenry turned out to express their constitutional right only to witness the “blatant broad daylight robbery of their mandate by the enemies of democracy.”
She said this shameful rape of democracy can’t continue.”The general perception that politics is a dirty game and that good people cannot and should not participate in politics needs to be changed. There is nothing wrong with the quest for government.
Without government, there would be no society. But government needs to stay good and in the hands of fit and proper persons elected by the people for the common good. Politics and government become dirty and undesirable when stolen by usurpers. There is strong need to restore the faith of Nigerians in government. This is why we are here.”