Anambra Polls: women group caution Anambra women on protest

by Emeka Ibemere

Mothers and other women in Anambra State, South East Nigeria have been told to stay clear away from being used by politicians who failed election in the yet to be concluded gubernatorial election in the State, held last Saturday November 16, 2013.

Speaking on phone interview on Saturday, the President General, All State Women Association of Nigeria World-Wide, Barrister Temple Nnedum asked Anambra women not to be involved in the political firmaments ranging in Anambra state adding that it was a bad wind that would blow them ill.

Nnedum urged the women in Anambra State, including the professionals to read the hand writing of enemies of democracy on the wall and know where they are coming from. According to the organization, women shouldn’t fall prey to the evil machination of fake politicians in Nigeria and Anambra State to tear Anambra apart, saying that the election of officers in the state was in the hands of God. Explaining further, Nnedum said at the end of the whole political saga, the politicians would settle where they settle while the poor mothers and women used in the inferno would be forgotten and allowed to die in penury.

The mother of four said women have been used severally in the past and dumped after protests and wondered what they stand to benefit in the rented protests the politicians are asking them to embark on.

She decried the attitude of politicians who would hide their own mothers and sisters to go and pay peanuts to poor women of Anambra State to march to the streets of Anambra, Awka, Idemili, Onitsha, Obosi and others for a protest that would not do them any good. He urged the women to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to finish her duty in Anambra State but they could actually know what has gone wrong or not.

According to the women leader, the politicians have sent their own mothers and sisters, brothers and cousins abroad before the election and are looking for cheap women to use to fight their electoral election results.

 “You should not allow yourself to be used on illegal protests. You are mothers to Nigerians. Let us always appreciate and encourage those agencies that are aspiring to improve and do better election in Nigeria. All State Women Association of Nigeria World-Wide are rooted in Anambra state and we can tell you that INEC and the Police deserve thumbs up”, she stated.

“The state has enough security to contain the fray, so no intimidation of any sort could cow down the voices of the people who have spoken in the last election”.

 Besides, Nnedum reminded the women used to protest for the election result in the Anambra disputed election to be careful because according to her, the state belongs to the mothers and their children and that should anything happened in the state, they would be losers at the end of the day.

The rented crowd of women took to the streets of Anambra State when they discovered that the result of the election was not favorable to their candidates on Sunday immediately trio of PDP, APC and LP candidates called a press conference to annual the election conducted on Saturday on the grounds of irregularities claimed by the three parties. Nnedum urged those who have lost in the election to embrace one another and accept defeat in good faith rather than trying to put fire on their father’s land in an attempt to rule the state by fiat.

“You cannot intimidate any Anambrarians for whatever reason. We commend the Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi for his gentlemanly character in its entirety. We want to say that we should not expect perfection because we on ourselves are not perfect”, she said. “So the areas where we had crisis in the governorship election of 16^th November, 2013, were that imperfection in us. INEC and the Nigeria Police did their best and we are impressed and are encouraging them to do improve on so that Nigeria will get to that promise land”.

All State Women Association stated further that the candidates for the parties should congratulate themselves and for whatever reasons adding that everybody cannot rule at the same time. Nnedum pleaded with the candidates of the parties not to turn Anambra State into a theater of war because at the end of the war, everybody would be losers.

“We want to tell the aspirants to always accept defeats because everyone will not emerge the governor of the state at the same time. It’s only one person that will be the governor of the State. We have found out that Nigerian men find it difficult to accept defeat and it’s so difficult for them to congratulate each other and this why we are begging them not to involve our old mothers and poor children of Anambra State. We are asking them to imbibe that culture of congratulating one another, not to be at war always because of their selfish political interests”, Nnedum pleaded.

In the history of Anambra State, this is the best justified and good election ever witnessed and I congratulate INEC and the Nigerian police for their efforts. Nigerian women are saying- “Well-done”, she concluded.

Dozens of women angry at being disenfranchised during Saturday’s Anambra State Gubernatorial election took their protest to INEC headquarters, Awka, on Sunday.
However, the heavy presence of armed police officers around the electoral commission’s office prevented them from getting within 500 metres of the office.
The women, who identified themselves as “Anambra women”, said they could not cast their votes because their names were missing on the voters register.
Others said that the late arrival of electoral materials prevented them from casting their votes.
Chanting solidarity songs, the women made their way from the Awka-Onitsha expressway towards the House of Assembly road, where the INEC is situated, only to run into a walk straight into the arms of unsympathetic security operatives whose duty in the state was to maintain peace and order.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has called for the cancellation of the election.
In a statement by Lai Mohammed, the APC’s interim National Publicity Secretary, the party said that voting did not take place across the state, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South as well as Awka South.
According to the APC, electoral materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, were “hijacked” without any explanation by INEC.
The party also said that voters’ registers for Idemili South, Chris Ngige’s local government, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite assurances by the commission.
“Before the election, political parties were given voters’ registers that largely contained the names of most voters,” the APC said in the statement.
“However, about four days to the election, Prof Jega said at an interactive stakeholder’s forum that there were problems with the registers, which would be rectified before the election. “However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation,” it added.
The party further called for the immediate removal of Chukwuemeka Onukogu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state for being “incompetent and conniving.”
APC said it complained that Prof. Onukogu had been partial and unprofessional when he conducted the 2011 election.
“In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial. During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight,” the APC said.
“After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies.
“We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election,” the party added.

Briefing journalists in Awka, other candidates announced that they had boycotted the rerun election in in 65 wards in Idemili North on Sunday.

The election was cancelled in the   wards because election materials could not be delivered there on Saturday, the day of the poll.

 INEC deferred declaration of all the finals result until those of the rerun were collated.

Ngige and Nwoye had earlier on Sunday morning also complained about the conduct of the poll and called for its cancellation. While the APC candidate had the backing of the national leadership of his party, Nwoye seemed to be acting alone as the PDP headquarters said it was satisfied with the conduct of the election. APGA however praised the conduct of the election and said INEC had fulfilled its promise to make it the best ever.

“We are satisfied with the way INEC has conducted this exercise so far. We are thoroughly satisfied with the conduct of the security agencies,” the National Chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, said. Umeh accused those that have questioned the credibility of the election of not being agents of the truth. He added that they    were complaining because it had become clear to them that they would lose. On the allegations that APGA rigged the process with INEC, Umeh said, “We will never rig election in this state. We believe in due process. We believe in the rule of law.”

But, the Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room, a coalition of 40 civil society organisations that monitored the election,   said it fell short of standards.  In a statement   on Sunday, the organisation noted   that poor deployment of logistics,   materials, and incompetence of many polling officials contributed to the problems that affected the poll. The statement by the leader of the group, Mr. Tunji Lardner, added,   “INEC’s conduct of the governorship election in Anambra State poses serious concerns ahead of the 2015 general elections and the Situation Room calls on INEC to change its strategy with a view to improving on its preparations for the 2015 elections.”