Re-elected Governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, yesterday, reiterated that thieves and fraudsters who had corrupted the electoral processes since 1999 were still holding sway at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He noted that the fact that he had won last Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State could not stop him from pointing out many fraudulent attempts.
The comrade governor said this to justify an earlier alarm he raised about plans to manipulate the electoral process that fetched him a second term last Saturday.
Speaking to State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the governor said he had made a point to the electoral body before the Saturday election in the state those elections that have been conducted since 1999 have been characterised by manipulations, leading to cancellations by the Court of Appeal.
He claimed to have warned INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega that any electoral officer who had a history and or had been found guilty of manipulating elections leading to cancellation were better off not deployed to supervise election anywhere in Nigeria, and added that if he does, then he must take full responsibility.
He said, “If I know you are a thief, this is not suspicion now: a thief confirmed by law because of the nature of our electoral act.
“The fact that it has been confirmed that you were involved in malpractice does not mean you are close to prison.
“So, there are convicted people who are walking freely and I do appreciate the fact that Jega has no power in terms of who is appointed the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) or who gets appointed as a commissioner but he has discretion in terms of who he posts to where.
“And if some thieves have been out around him and he knows them by reason of their past conduct, when he has to conduct an isolated election as the one in Edo astute, he has enough men from which to choose. And when we raised these issues with him, I have always told him sir, the fact of the purity of your heart does not mean everybody in the system has the same purity of heart.
“And you being a Nigerian, you are aware that fraud has characterised INEC activities since 1999 which is the reason your predecessor retired prematurely and you were appointed, so you can’t claim that you do not know that there are bad eggs in your system.
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