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Oshiomhole decries politically motivated arrests
Newsdiaryonline Wed March23,2011
Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has decried the
rise in politically motivated
arrests in the state, fingering an insipid ploy by the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP)
to undermine the frontline candidates of the Action
Congress of Nigeria
(ACN).
Speaking at the formal opening of the Nigeria Bar Association
(NBA), Benin Branch week in Benin City, the governor noted that
in spite of the avowed declaration by President Goodluck
Jonathan to ensure a free and fair election,
there are ominous signs,
particularly with recent cases of assassination and
politically motivated
arrests, that this declaration may be in the breach.
Alluding to the recent assassination attempt on Senator Ehigie
Uzamere, the ACN senatorial
candidate in Edo South, in which his police orderly was killed;
the invitation by the
police asking Mr Domingo Obende, the party’s senatorial
candidate to appear in
Abuja by next Monday and the arrest of an ACN henchman,
Francis Inegbeniki over
a touted connection to a shooting incident, Oshiomhole
said it was clear that
the stage is being set for deliberately stifling the
capacity of the ACN in
the forthcoming election.
Regretting the new amendment to the Electoral Law which has
taken away the power of
the courts to declare a winner in case of dispute, the governor
said it was clear that
those who were not happy with the upturn of several rigged
mandates by the PDP have
merely decided to take their own pound of flesh. Pointing to the
grave dangers of tying the hands of the Judiciary in the face of
electoral fraud and the
muzzling of the people’s votes, Oshiomhole said the
recent declaration by
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji
Bankole that the PDP
will win any re-run by the courts meant that the amendment of
the Electoral Law was merely in consonance with a grand script
of the party to rig and
manipulate the voting process.
“If they are on top of the mango tree and they want to be the
only ones to shake the
tree, then we are in for trouble. If the courts cannot intervene
to declare a winner in
case of electoral dispute, then I insist that those who engage
in rigging must be dealt
with”.
Contending that the negative consequences of an unelected and
unaccountable political
leadership has taken a huge toll on the nation’s development and
reduced over 70 per cent
of the population to poverty level, Oshiomhole said “If
people can acquire power
in spite of people, how can they care about their
welfare?”, urging the
electorate not to spare election riggers.
“If we see them trying to rig, we should summarily deal with
them. The election will
be free and fair if we make the bold statement that election
riggers will not have a
field day. But if on Election Day, we hand over our destiny to
God, rigging will be
prevalent”, he said.
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