Our good people of Abia State and Nigeria, it said that “injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere”. Abia is today a true example of what a state should not be, not because we came with a curse on creation but because men entrusted with the leadership of our State chose to be mindless monsters.
After eight years of horrible suffocation of our democracy and imprisonment of our economic growth by T.A.Orji, Abians decided to leverage on the opportunity provided by the Attahiru Jega’s INEC free and fair master plan to re-write their chequered history as they trooped out en mass to cast their votes during the Governorship election.
Before and during the election, Abians showed the kind of zeal, consciousness, bravery, and unity never seen in the history of Abia politics in their determination to get rid of PDP and ensure that T.A. Orji did not become their de-facto Governor after the expiration of his inglorious tenure.
This rare audacity from Abians was replied with hostility, violence, and hate, as their lives were openly threatened while coffins and caskets were littered all over the state as a threat of death to Abia voters; they did it because they wanted continuity of impunity and animalism, while Abians shunned them because we wanted change.
Any one that’s in tune with the happenings in Nigeria would not need a seer to know that even an Obama cannot defeat a Tinubu in Lagos, neither can a George Washington defeat an Odumegwu Ojukwu in Abia, nor a Clinton daring a Mohhammadu Buhari in Katsina, such was the odd against PDP in the last Governorship election in Abia State.
The greatest obstacle PDP encountered was the emergence of a First Class Abia son in the person of Dr. Alex Otti whom many Abians considered their own Liberator in the election.
After Otti’s emergence as APGA Guber candidate, PDP’s nightmare metamorphosed into a dangerous desperation, and when their acts of violence, intimidation, threats, blockades and billboard destruction couldn’t halt Otti’s wild fire-like popularity and acceptability, the ruling Government connived with dishonest INEC officials to illegally withhold thousands of PVC’s belonging to willing voters in a bid to frustrate them, yet they couldn’t get any thing legitimately because they were standing alone.
The worst of it all was the use of L.G. Transition Committee members, most of whom were thugs hurriedly recruited to collect PVC’s for their wards, and turned back to deny same to potential voters perceived to be against the unpopular regime.
On the election day proper, in spite of the broad day light brigandage, Abians showed an extraordinary resilience as they stood firm and poured in thousands of their votes for Dr. Otti and APGA, and seeing defeat starring them in the face, the PDP in connivance with some corrupt INEC officials and with the privilege of having the original result sheets hurriedly wrote fake results which they pushed to INEC headquarters in Umuahia to overwhelming the glaring victory of APGA,, and through this criminal audacity they got the magical Seventeen Thousand votes in Isialangwa North(17,000), forty-two thousand votes in Osisoma (42,000), and eighty two thousand votes (82,000) in Obingwa, while giving APGA little over One thousand votes (1,000) in each of the L.G.As mentioned above, such was their brazen impunity and daring dubiousness, which saw Obingwa, a local government of eleven (11) wards, out of which only four (4) are urban scoring more votes than 10 L.G.As put together.
On seeing protests backed up by empirical evidence from Ad-hoc staff, Presiding Officers, and Polling Agents, the Returning Officer announced to the world in the presence of international media and election observers the cancellation of results of the three Local Governments and premised his decision on evidence of shooting, snatching, and stuffing of ballot papers, as well as voting without Card Readers.
Few minutes after the announcement, three high ranking members of the PDP namely Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the then Governor T.A. Orji, and Chief Olisa Metuh supported by their stand by PDP thugs recklessly abused our electoral laws when they invaded the INEC headquarters in Umuahia where they forced the Resident Commissioner, an old woman into one of the rooms, the Returning Officer joined her upstairs, and few minutes later, the Returning Officer reversed their earlier cancellation to the shock and disbelief of the Nation.
Through these criminal acts of violence and dark age brigandage, PDP got victory through the back door.
Since Dr. Otti and APGA approached the Tribunal to peacefully seek redress, the PDP and their men have fruitlessly struggled to defend their indefensible victory, and to get victory once again through crook means they have once again assaulted both our Judiciary and Electoral system through their actions which included but not limited to the attack on Otti’s lawyers and Forensic experts and their subsequent prevention from implementing the order of the Tribunal concerning the inspection of electoral materials in Obingwa, and the burning down of INEC headquarters in the same L.G.A less than 24hours before the said materials would be brought to Umuahia as ordered by the Tribunal; these are atrocities that must not be rewarded with judicial blessing so as not to encourage future perpetrators.
We are not desirous of bothering innocent Abians and Nigerians with our tale of woes since they do not belong to the cabal of the Abia Yoke Masters responsible for our woes, but we are refreshing your memories to these nationally condemned atrocities which some of you might have heard as Nigerians, and also for you to know our long journey in darkness and our desperate desire to loosen the slave master’s rope of terror from our necks, this can only be achieved through justice anchored on truth.
We wouldn’t have bothered writing this piece considering the sensitivity of this legal matter to avoid being accused of weeping up sentiments for one of the parties, and also believing the Judges to be men of unquestionable integrity, high moral standing, and legal principals of impeccable pedigree , but we write to wake your consciousness to the anti people machinations of the enemies of Abia who have once again embarked on their voodoo voyage of Abia destruction.
After repeatedly hearing the authoritative but open boasts of the Abia Political buccaneers which is anchored neither on the facts of evidence of their so called victory nor on the merit of their case at the tribunal, but on their ability to compromise the Learned Judges by every means possible and win the governorship case, we increased our vigilance and spread our tentacles deeper, and to our shock we discovered that these boasts are backed up with hi-tech anti democratic and anti human measures aimed at permanently sinking our dear State of Abia.
Our people, compromising the Tribunal by every available fund at the disposal of the present government has become a special project given to a special committee to execute, and contacts are being made on a daily basis beyond party level to raise men and resources for this evil job.
Actively involved in the plot to compromise the Tribunal include the de facto Governor of Abia, a Serving Senator also from Abia State, a legal practitioner from Abia North, a high ranking member of the PDP National Working Committee from Anambra State, a disgraced former Senator from Abia South, a controversial politician/business man from Anambra, and a host of others who had earlier given loan for the election of the present Governor, and those promised one contract or another.
Also serious attempts have been made to seek the assistance of a serving senator from the South East whom they claim is proficient in the act of bribing Judges.
One of the most dangerous moves made a few weeks ago, at exactly 1:30 am was the very clandestine and suspicious movement of a heavily protected bullion van containing some Ghana Must Go bags loaded with huge sums of money and brought to Hotel Royal Damgret near Government House Umuahia which belongs to a high ranking PDP member, and which incidentally is where the Judges are lodged.
In the last few weeks, suspicious but serious moves involving the officials of the Abia state Government have been made across the borders of Nigeria to seek a possible and highly secretive way of compromising the Judges either in cash or through the purchase of very expensive property.
Our people, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun powder today courtesy of these cruel characters who would rather prefer to spend billions manipulating election results rather than use half of such funds to work for the suffering masses and genuinely win their votes.
Nigeria is presently held hostage by oil bunkerers, armed robbers, kidnappers, Assailants, and now terrorists who wouldn’t have been here or at least would have been defeated if we had virile political institutions, and to get rid of these vises that are swiftly sinking Nigeria, we must get these election manipulators out of circulation because they are worse than suicide bombers, but we cannot achieve these if our Judges fail to rise to the challenges of this challenging era and call the bluff of these enemies of democracy.
Fellow Nigerians and suffering Abians ,we have unquestionable and implicit confidence in Nigerian Judges knowing their towering antecedents in the face of many challenges, though as humans they could be vulnerable to the satanic and fetish manipulations of the Enemies of Abia hence the need for the Abia Guber Judges to put on their divinely protected legal armor, and avoid them like leprosy.
The Judges must have heard that Abia was like a grave yard the day this government was announced the winner of the Governorship election, that silence of sorrow spoke volumes of the disappointment and frustrations of Abians, and today expectations are very high and the atmosphere very tensed because of the case at the Guber Tribunal which Abians see as their greatest opportunity to end this 21st century slavery, therefore the impacts of the chaotic response and reactions that would arise from any act of miscarriage of justice would be far reaching, hence the need for the Judges to be guided by nothing but the truth.
As non conformists, these rapists of democracy and good governance called politicians don’t care about the new dawn heralded by the Muhammadu Buhari led administration, they are loud mouth braggarts who boast about their exploits in election rigging and bribing of judges, they care more about their selfish individual luxury than the glorious careers of our Nigerian Judges which they are ready to cast in bad light and endanger in their bid to capture political power illegally.
Like Martin Luther King Jnr. Rightly declared that, “those who deny freedom from others deserve not to have it for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it”.
Our freedom, our peace, and our development are held hostage by these men hence our daring determination to break the chains of these slave masters.
We do not seek injustice against our opponents, neither do we seek sympathy and unmerited favor from any where, we seek fairness and justice anchored on truth.
As the Judges conscientiously and courageously preside over this historic matter that holds forth the destiny of Abia and millions of Abians, may their hearts and spirits resist and reject the enemies of Abia who strive to murder justice, and may the justice that they shall render to Abians and Nigerians sustain and give them peace all the days of their life.
Ferdinand Ekeoma is an Aide to the Chairman of APGA in Abia State
