HOW MONEYBAGS HIJACKED THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE: Akwa Ibom April 11 Elections, Show Of Financial Strength — Esuene

Senator Helen Esuene (Image source: senatorhelenesuene.com)

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Akwa Ibom State, Senator Helen Esuene, has said that the April 11 governorship and state house of assembly elections were show of financial strength.

Esuene said in a statement she made available to journalists in Uyo on Monday that the exercise failed to capture the wishes of the Akwa Ibom people.

The Punch report continues:

According to her, voters were enticed with cash and goods everywhere, and cajoled into voting accordingly.

She added that the state was disorganized by the action of thirsty mercenaries imported from everywhere to, if need be, kill and go. She noted that what transpired at the elections were clear departure from what the law says.

She said, “The exercise of April 11 was more of a show of financial strength than the capturing of the wishes of the Akwa Ibom people. Voters were enticed with cash and goods everywhere; they were cajoled into voting accordingly before they were given what was promised them. This is a clear departure from what the law says.

“Election materials were diverted on the way to the units, while some were forcefully taken away from units with the assistance of mercenaries to unknown destinations.

“After normal voting by accredited voters, the remaining ballot papers were thump-printed with the full knowledge of INEC officials and security personnel; any agent who tried to resist this was forced out.

“The materials and personnel that were diverted on the way to polling units ended up in the homes of some VIPs where the voting exercise was illegally conducted. Such homes were heavily guarded by police officers.”

Esuene said it was a common knowledge that the number of persons in the voters’ register in many units were fraudulently inflated, and the cards did not belong to known persons.

According to her, they were the cards that were used to inflate the actual voting where the officials want to exhibit some level of caution. She stated that in other areas thump printing was done irrespective of the card readers.

She said, “In order to serve as a deterrent for future elections, the result of all such inflated units should be discarded and only the genuine result of the very few units be used to compute for the declaration of the winner.”

Meanwhile, there is ongoing jubilation in Uyo over the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Mr. Udom Emmanuel at the polls.

Barracks Road leading to Government House has being experiencing heavy traffic as thousands of people have thronged there to felicitate with Emmanuel.

One of the youths, Emmanuel Ekong, who was seen there, said whether there were elections or not didn’t matter, as they have seen a new governor and have every right to rejoice with him.