I was among journalists that interviewed Sen. Magnus Abe at his Ogoni home in Gokana LGA of Rivers State and after having witnessed the sham of a process that pervaded the rerun for the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly elections in the state, all forms of respect I had for the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum upstream vanished into thin air.
It is a common saying that politicians are easily prone to mendacious tendencies but the ways and pattern with which Sen. Magnus abe displayed his own showed that there is really no glimmer of hope for this country with the APC. As I watched him reeling out vituperations upon vituperations on the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and the Nigerian Police, I was forced to kill the urge to follow the example of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at ex-president George Bush of the United States.
Sen. Abe in his tantrums refused to address the issues at stake which had to do with the conduct of the process of the elections in the state instead he went about accusing PDP of violence mainly from hearsays. I covered Eleme, Tai, Khana and Gokhana areas of the state during the elections and must confess that what I saw as regards the impish conivance of the Nigerian Army, INEC and the All Progressives Congress APC was a national shame.
When the vociforious governor of Ekiti state Ayo Fayose said Buhari and the APC has destroyed all the legacies left behind by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan I said he has not only destrioyed those legacies but is taking the country to the atavistic period.
Sen. Magnus Abe chose to resort to selective amnesia and mudslinging when he accused the PDP of perpetrating violence during the elections. but as far as I know, the PDP did not perpetrate violence in the elections rather it was the APC that attempted to instigate violence using the Nigerian Army. The gunshots which Sen. Abe was referring to in his interview was the ones been shot by men of the Nigerian Army to scare away PDP supporters who were barred from participating in the elections.
I must stress that with the conduct which the Nigerian Army displayed by beating up unarmed supporters of the PDP, they were the ones perpetrating the violence and not the PDP whose leaders were arrested for not committing any crime.
In Abuja where I am based, what we were constantly told is that PDP is a violent party but what our crew witnessed on ground is a case whereby the dog accuses the cat of eating his bones. It was glaring that the APC was not prepared for elections but to hijack the process of the elections to their gain with the support of the Nigerian Army and INEC. A captain in the Nigerian Army ordered that no cars leave the premises of INEC at Tai LGA and I wondered what right he had to give such an order considering the High Court ruling against their taking part in the elections.
It took the efforts of the Nigerian Police which Sen. Abe lampooned seriously to bring a semblance of normalcy in the elections. When I watched Abe criticisisng the police I pitied the average Nigerian who has become the victims of the mendacity of the APC a party founded on propaganda.
The truth be told for everyone to know. Their was virtually no violence perpetrated by PDP as far as we know unlike what Abe wants the world to believe rather, there was a clear case of intimidation, oppression, impunity and all what by the APC using the Nigerian Army and INEC.
Talking about impunity in the elections, how else can one explain the role of the former governor of Rivers state Rotimi Amaechi in storming a police station in the state's capital with military men in commando style in order to whisk away an electoral officer who they said ran to the police for protection? What was the interest of the APC in the matter? Virtually all their leaders were there and I asked myself how many electoral officials were killed by the PDP as we were made to believe by Dakuku Peterside.
Rotimi Amaechi is the master of impunity and he displayed it at the police station that day. I wonder where the Wole Soyinkas and Femi Falanas are. Is it that they are not seeing all these or they have decided to look the other way while the state is thrown into confussion and anarchy by a desperate party that has been openly rejected by the Rivers people.
The incidents at Tai and other areas we covered at Ogoni land is a shame and must be condemned by all. It is important that the leaders of the PDP in the area be commended for what they did. I must specially commend the likes of Hon. Jacobson Nbina who despite the intimidation he faced, urged his suporters to maintain peace. Dr. John Bazia the state's Commissioner of Chieftancy and Local Government Affairs as well as the CTC Chairman for Tai must also be commended for the peaceful posture they displayed. Nigerians have been so deceived by the propaganda of the APC which today has been exposed by the crass incompetency of the present administration at Abuja. We must rise to against their propaganda by telling the likes of Sen. Abe and co that Nigerians are wise and can deciphere the truth.
Etuk Benjamin is a journalist who covered the election
No comments:
Post a Comment