An electoral officer confesses her sin

Chux Ohai

CHUX OHAI captures a puzzling moment during the governorship election in Imo State

On Sunday, April 12, just as many people in Imo State were finally coming to terms with the harsh reality of ‘change’ right at their doorsteps, especially with reports indicating that the incumbent Governor Rochas Okorocha had won the governorship election in 19 out of the 27 local government areas, I witnessed a shocking confession in Owerri.

I refer to the incident as ‘shocking’ because a woman, in whom the electorate had so much confidence, was involved. It happened right inside the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state capital.

The lady, I learnt, was a former public relations officer of INEC. She was also an electoral officer in one of the local government areas recently listed as a hotbed of electoral malpractices and election crises in Imo.

This woman – simply identified as Emmanuella – was implicated in a not-so-clever plot to short-change thousands of voters in that LGA in favour of one of the major political parties involved in a do-or-die battle for the soul of the state.

Suddenly finding herself between the devil and the deep blue sea, the lady cracked and decided to sing. She sang like a canary, confessing her role in the plot before an audience comprising journalists, security agents, party agents, the Resident Electoral Officer, Gabriel Ada, and the State Returning Officer, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe.

With mouths wide open in astonishment, we listened attentively as the words rolled down her lips, revealing how she was arm-twisted by some unidentified politicians, so-called elders and thugs into manipulating the results of the governorship polls in the local government.

“These are not the original results we had. All the figures we have presented are not the real ones. The politicians and the elders, as well as some armed thug s, forced us to give them the original result sheets. They threatened to deal with us if we failed to obey their instructions,” the woman said.

A chilling silence descended on the gathering for a few seconds and, then, the whole place exploded in a wild babble of angry voices.

Right then, I stole a glance at Prof. Ibidapo-Obe. His face was a mask of confusion and fury.

“You mean to tell me that these results are not real?” he asked the woman.

She nodded and went on to tell the gathering how the original copies of the result sheets were taken away from her by fraudulent politicians and their thugs under duress.

Some of the loud dissenting voices that greeted this confession belonged to some journalists who had openly taken sides with one of the political parties. This group of journalists accused the REC of subtly supporting another party and called for instant cancellation of the election in question.

But, in spite of the fury and screaming, it was clear to all present that the electoral officer’s confession had opened an unexpected can of worms and exposed the truth about the attitude of many politicians to elections in the state.

It showed why elections in Imo are usually a do-or-die affair. Also, it explained why, about three hours earlier, another female officer from the Ezinihitte Local Government Area had fled collation arena.