Sabbath Udomisor, running mate to the Accord Party governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, speaks to Special correspondent, EMMA AYUNGBE, on the conduct of the election in the state, the stance of his party towards the outcome and its next line of action.
Assessment of governorship election in Akwa Ibom
The governorship election in the state, from the popular view of all the other candidates, is that 90 per cent of the exercise is a fraud. That is the position of Accord Party (AP).
There was the issue of hijacking of materials in the neighbouring villages like Okoyo, Ikot Una and some other places. But in my unit, they did not come to hijack any material. The election was peaceful in that location, but all over the local government, materials were hijacked. That was the report I got from other wards.
Situation in Onna where the governorship candidate of AP, Bishop Samuel Akpan, hails from
From the report he gave me, there was no material in his unit and he couldn’t vote because there was no material for him to vote; that’s what he said.
Contesting the declaration of Udom Emmanuel as governor-elect
We don’t want to take to violence or cause problem in the state because some people’s lives may be lost. It is better to take a legal process. That process will be determined by our legal team; the lapses that were observed. It is for our legal team that has been set up to look at the issue that we have and then advise us properly on going to the tribunal.
Impact of card-readers and other technological innovations in the conduct of the elections
The card-readers worked to an extent, but failed after a while and, somehow, it got into manual voting. I believe that if the technology is improved, it will be better for us. I want to see a situation where election is conducted like it is done in America; at your spare time, you just go to your unit to vote and go back home. You don’t need to go and queue.
We now have voters card; we should be able to develop a technology that will allow people vote normally without having to go and queue, without having to go through problems and challenges.
If we can bring in a databank that will not allow double voting, so that when you vote once, it’s done. It will be better for us. I don’t want to really comment on the issues of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties. I think the court will decide whether the election actually took place or not.
A case for electronic voting
Yes, I am an advocate of electronic voting because if you have a proper database that is adequately secured, I don’t think the issue of hijacking will actually be there because the database rejects double thumb-print.
So, proper electronic voting that is well planned will reduce rigging as well as running away with ballot boxes and ballot papers. I also suggest that we should be voting electronically; we should not be voting on paper again. Other countries, especially the advanced countries, are not voting on paper, but mostly electronically, so the votes will count.
AP governorship candidate scoring 10,598 votes
There is no way AP will get that kind of low votes. I don’t know where they got the numbers from. The number is best known to who brought out the result. So, the numbers are for them, not for the AP because we have teeming supporters. Wherever they got the numbers only God knows.
We are peaceful people; we are not going into war with anybody. Election is a game; you either lose or win, but when you know you are actually losing, there is no point fighting about it.
I did not go into the election seeing it as a do or die affair; I have my business and I am doing well. So, I didn’t enter the race with the mindset that I will die if I am not made the deputy governor. I see it basically as a game.
If I lose knowing I actually lost, it won’t bother me; but when somebody just sits down and allocates votes and writes any figure and sends to you, God is there to judge. We don’t have much to say.
Connivance between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP in the state
I don’t want to accuse anybody; I avoid accusing people because everybody saw what happened. The police were hijacking materials. I don’t know whether they were real police or fake policemen in police uniform; all I know is that everywhere they stayed, materials were hijacked.
I don’t know whether they respected me so much that they didn’t hijack materials in my unit, but in the neighbouring villages, they took away materials. In my hometown, they allowed us to vote and we voted.
Decision by opposition parties to withdraw from the electoral process midway
The political parties came together and then decided that all opposition parties should withdraw from the election because of the behaviour of members of the PDP who were hijacking materials. There was chaos and all forms of violence. To avoid maiming and killing, we decided to withdraw about 4pm. In the entire state, all our agents tendered protest letter in all the local governments, protesting the election.
All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP) and others involved in the process
Yes, it was the case with all of them; all of them withdrew. It was a position of all the political parties, not only APC and Labour. We have over 20 political parties, and about 17 or 19 withdrew.
Hope for Nigerians under Buhari
Yes, there is still hope for Nigeria; the only challenge we are having in Nigeria is the issue of unnecessary spending, unnecessary wastages and lack of proper focus and follow-up to deliver. There is no reason our youths should be roaming the streets looking for job. It is very sympathetic and we have the capacity to revolutionise the industrial sector of this country and make more impact in the commerce of the world.
Commerce plays a big role in the world; if commercial activities do not function properly to stimulate export and import, then the economy would not do well. Even if you are building industries, the product of the industries are for commerce. So, we must build back our industries, targeting the commercial part of it, so that our youths will be gainfully employed.
If proper planning is done and people come out of school and they are employed, there is no reason for us not to have peace. We have the resources, the capacity and people who can do it. Even in this state, despite the kind of money that we have; if I have a chance of going into government, I will be involved in serious commercial activities and reduce unemployment in the state. Industries that we will set up will be targeted towards employment and productivity.
The current administration in the state has put in place infrastructural development, give it to them. But the commercial part of it is dead. If it continues like this, the reason for having such infrastructure will be defeated.
