We need stakeholders’ summit —ADC chairman

Chief Ralph Okey-Nwosu, chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), one of the parties fielding candidates for the November 6, governorship poll, sheds light on the frightening security situation in the state and offers possible solution.

WHAT do you think about the current security situation in Anambra State as the Election Day approaches?

Not less than 30 innocent lives have been lost in Anambra state in what I must say has to do with November 6th, 2021 Anambra Governorship election. It started with the tragic incident involving two security personnel attached to APGA Charles Soludo. Since then many more persons were murdered callously. Until the massive onslaught of this and penultimate weeks, most people had attributed the killings to IPOB and their Monday lock down promulgation. Some pointed fingers to state operatives and the Fulani herdsmen.

But reflecting on what transpired during the party primaries or candidate selection processes of the so called two major political parties and APGA, the picture seems to be getting clearer. The desperation of members of the ruling parties is painting our democracy in human blood not to talk of violation of court processes and the judiciary. The APC, PDP and APGA have brought a new form of Boko Haram to the South-East and the judiciary. When Soludo’s security personnel were killed, everyone thought it to be a plot outside politics. But barely five weeks to the election, the war in APGA is still on, with Soludo and Governor Willie Obiano apparently unperturbed, while APGA members move in droves to APC.  Within the PDP, it has been a series of court injunctions and free spree of dollars causing chaos. Some of their heavy war chest contenders have poted to new platforms with their concocted chalice. The APC had settled their primary in hotels not in the wards as the direct primary process requires. Within the week of the PDP, APC and APGA primaries, gun men occupied most of the hotels and roamed the various wards and constituencies in Anambra State. Bullion vans stood by in the banks within the capital city of Awka doling out money for grand purchase of the entire process.

All the war happened within those parties before and during their primaries and made the outcome of their events toxic. Now, the toxicity has gone into the larger field of contest and the pungency is so corrosive and has consumed about 20 lives in less than one week. There is no other way to explain what is happening in Anambra. It is APGA, PDP and APC desperados in a dangerous power war of a new sort.

I had listened to Professor Pat Utomi and Professor Attahiru Jega and a host of very erudite others talk about electronic collation of polls results and the lukewarm attitude of the national assembly to Electoral integrity. More than 98 percent of the members of the National Assembly are members of the same parties. Electoral integrity means nothing to those who can murder for vote or those who give no hoot to fraudulent emptying of the nation’s treasury only because they are in public service.

What are the solutions and way out?

To correctly rejig our democracy rests on all of us especially those truly pained by how low the nation has sunk under the illusion of democracy. To avoid further blood bath in Anambra state, the Inspector General of police, Deputy Inspector Generals of all the security intelligence agencies, leaders of political parties and the candidates must hold a summit within the next couple of days. Also there should be an emergency judiciary meeting to take hard and patriotic decisions on APC, PDP, APGA and all that poted after their primaries. These are the people who are transferring their corrosive culture of win by gun, hook or crook to the larger environment. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the records and can facilitate the peace.

The implications are beyond November 6th Anambra election. The APC and PDP have turned electioneering into a terror and primitive invasion and war exercise unfortunately. Blood means nothing to them. See what the importation of terrorists from outside Nigeria has caused the country. Our politicians are shameless. They want to retain their monstrous grip on power by all means. But we cannot allow them. We can only die once.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…