 |
| OBIANO - APGA CANDIDATE |
Read more from SAHARA REPORTERS. after the cut.
Despite an insistence by Willie Obiano, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), that he did not engage in multiple registrations, damning evidence has now emerged that he did. The proof that Mr. Obiano registered multiple times might put his candidature in serious trouble, a source at the electoral commission said.
The revelations came after an Anambra State High Court had granted the candidate a weird injunction to shield him from criminal prosecution.
Unimpeachable documents obtained by SaharaReporters show that Mr. Obiano registered more than once, an act that violates the law. On August 21, 2013, he was issued a voter identification number (VIN) 90F5B12B88377091121. Then, at 10.25 a.m., on September 3, 2013, he was given another voter identification number 90F5B15E7D378200332. A third registration car has also emerged from Kosofe Local Government area in Lagos.
Except for the fact that the APGA candidate wore different clothes, all the information in the three registrations remained the same. In the cards, he was registered as “Obiano, Maduabuchi Willie.” His address in both documents was given as “No. 1 Chief Willie Obiano Street, Otuocha” just as his date of birth was recorded as August 8, 1955. His age on both cards was recorded as 56.
The watermarks on the cards clearly show the different voter identification numbers as well as different issuing dates and times, though the name of the candidate was unchanged.
“It is against the law to register more than once,” a source at INEC told SaharaReporters today. Section 12(2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that “A person shall not register in more than one registration center or register more than once in the same registration center.” Section 12(3) then states that any person who contravenes the law would be liable “on conviction to a fine not exceeding N100,000 or imprisonment.”
The documents’ appearance coupled with the embarrassment caused by Mr. Obiano’s cheating at the Governorship Debate where he was caught reading from prepared materials contrary to the express rules given by the organizers, may cause the APGA candidate to be removed from the race for the election of November 16, 2013.
Our INEC source said the documents are bound to put intense pressure on the electoral commission to probe the APGA candidate for registering three times, given that Obiano had conceded that he had also registered in Lagos, but claimed that he duly transferred his registration to Anambra. Curiously, he has been unable to provide any evidence to show that due process was followed or that he received approval from INEC for such transfer.
Also, the multiple registration saga has poked holes in claims by INEC that it has “cleaned up” the voters’ register by removing the names of multiple registrants. In past elections in Anambra State, such names like “Mike Tyson” and “Bill Clinton” among others have been seen in the list of registered voters.
In late October, INEC’s commissioner for election monitoring, Ishmael Igbani, said that the commission had “detected 93,526 multiple registration cases in Anambra State ahead of the November 16 governorship election. This represents five per cent of the registered voters in Anambra and they have been removed from the voters register.”
The fact that INEC was unable to detect multiple registrations by even high-profile registrants and Governorship aspirants, such as Obiano, has brought doubt to the commission’s assurance that it had prepared well for the election. It also begs the question whether INEC did its due diligence on the governorship aspirants before giving them clearance to run.
Last August, Chukwuemeka Onukogu, INEC’s Resident Commissioner for Anambra State, had made strident promises to prosecute multiple registrants in Anambra. He stated that INEC would prosecute 72 out of some 93,526 cases of multiple registrations recorded in 2011 in Anambra, saying that the move would serve as a deterrent to those intending to commit electoral offences. He said, “We have their names, pictures, addresses and gradually all of them will be caught and prosecuted but we are starting with 72 persons. The state police command had been notified.”
However, the question remains whether INEC was unable to identify Mr. Obiano or whether the commissioner shielded him from exposure.
The public emergence of the documents has also drawn attention to a recent decision by an Anambra State High Court which hurriedly cleared Mr. Obiano of the weighty allegation that he registered more than once. A court sitting at Otuocha in Anambra East local government area had dismissed a petition brought by one Chuma Tony Oli asking for the disqualification of the APGA candidate based on multiple registration. Justice D. O. C. Amaechina however threw out the petition “for lack of merit” and awarded N50,000 costs against the plaintiff.
Justice Amaechina has been noted for controversial rulings. When he was sitting at a court in Ihiala, he was nearly assaulted by angry PDP party faithful following his controversial handling of a case between Andy Uba and other PDP members. The judge reportedly escaped through the window when the angry mob invaded his court. His distress call to the police DPO in the area received no attention.
A political source in Anambra argued that Justice Amaechina’s order was meant to indirectly influence another petition now pending before the Federal High Court at Awka. The Federal case was brought by one Abum Emeremgini and is praying for an injunction restraining INEC and Mr. Onukaogu from recognizing Mr. Obiano as a candidate in the November 16 governorship election. The plaintiff is also asking the court to disqualify Mr. Obiano for the alleged multiple registration.
Mr. Emeremgini lawsuit alleges that proper procedure was not followed for the transfer of the name of Mr. Obiano from Lagos to Anambra State in INEC’s transferred voter’s list.
The Director-General of Obiano Campaign Organization, Joe-Martins Uzodike, had dismissed the call for the disqualification of Obiano. He said the issue of multiple registration was “a false rumor being spread in the Internet by some political opponents from other parties who are jittery over the landslide victory Dr. Obiano would record against them.” APGA’s state chairman, Mike Kwentoh, also denied the widespread allegation. According to Mr. Kwentoh, “The allegation of double registration is not true. Obiano only transferred his registration from Lagos to Anambra State. People should disregard such stories and treat it as false.’’
However, the appearance of the documents finally shows that the allegations were based on facts
No comments:
Post a Comment