I read a couple of press statements on Sunday reiterating the absurd political situation in Kogi state where elections were said have been conducted into local government council without official release of votes polled one year after the exercise.
Officially, local government elections was conducted in Kogi state on Saturday, December 12, 2020. On Sunday, December 13, 2020 the Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (KOSIEC) announced that the ruling party won all 21 chairmanship seats and 239 councillorship positions contested for in the said elections. While the chairman of KOSIEC, Mamman Nda Eri rolled out figures of Chairmanship elections in each of the 21 LGAs, he conspicuously left out breakdown of results in each of the 239 wards in the contest.
KOSIEC had since become ‘deaf and dumb’ as nothing is heard from the characters in the commission in the last 356 days. All hues and cries about making public the breakdown of the elections has fell on deaf ears. Why is it difficult for people feeding fat on tax payers funds to do what they are hired to do?
No one, officially or unofficially, has come up with figures, real or manipulated, to declare these 239 councillors elected.
It is a fact that none of the 239 councillors can openly tell the world how many votes he or she garnered to sit in the LG council chambers! None!
Why should these councillors continue to sit in our council chambers without proof that they were elected?
Without results, can anyone claim to have been elected? And to remember that these ‘councillors’ have been earning unmerited salaries and allowances in the last 12 months is befuddling!
Can a governor sit in the government house without officially declared election results? Can senators, rep members or even state assembly members be inaugurated without results? Why is the case of councillors in Kogi different? Are they operating a constitution different from the Nigerian Constitution?
What is happening in Kogi state is clearly undemocratic and all stakeholders must add their voice in the demand for breakdown of December 12, 2020 local government elections.
Governor Yahaya Bello must prove to Kogites, and Nigerians he desires to rule as President, that his democratic credentials are not in doubt.
If KOSIEC and its employers, the Bello-led government, fails to make public the breakdown of the election results, Kogi electorate must demand for immediate removal of all 239 councillors from office and refund of all unmerited salaries earned in the last 12 months.
– Adamu Ojonugwa writes from Lokoja.
