Dr Umar Ardo was the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the just concluded Adamawa governorship election. In this interview on TrustTV’s Daily Politics, he spoke about his dissatisfaction with the process and its conduct.
The election has come and gone specifically that of Adamawa; why are you dissatisfied with the outcome despite coming third?
Well, the aim of a contest is actually not necessarily to win but to participate but when you are participating, you should participate on the basis of a level playing ground, on a free and a fair election. The election in Adamawa was neither free nor was it fair.
Now, a free election is an election where the electorate vote their conscience without inducement, without cajoling, without any form of intimidation and so on; it didn’t happen like that in Adamawa State.
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The election basically took two major formats; in the cities, well when I say city I mean the state capital and then the local government, Yola North, Yola South, Mubi and then the local government headquarters. In these areas, the election was basically a market square.
How do you mean a market square?
It was vote buying, they were buying votes like no man’s business.
You mean openly?
Openly; everybody would be coming, you know. In fact it is not just the vote buyers, surprisingly and sadly too, the voters themselves waited to see who would come and pay and how much will he pay.
The highest bidder?
Mostly like that. That was what happened in the cities. So by its nature, it wasn’t free, because given the endemic poverty that the PDP and APC government over the years have reduced the people of the country to; and in fact taking us beyond level of poverty to the level of destitution, people kill for N10 so to speak.
So they were offered N2000, N3000, N5000 or a wrapper or a bag of rice, that is 5kg bag of rice or 10kg bag of rice which the APC and the PDP candidates had in trailers.
Are you alleging or…
I know for a fact, so people easily sell their votes. Therefore they sell their conscience. So they are not voting freely and they did not vote freely.
And in the villages, the vote buying was there but not as high as in the local government headquarters but here it is intimidation. The PDP with his own police and thugs…
Because the governor is PDP
Because the governor is PDP, controlling the state machinery, he has his own thugs and I have been in PDP, I know the violent nature of Adamawa politics within the PDP. I have experienced it three times.
My house was attacked, destroyed at one point, so there they coaxed the people, garrison the area and then do what they wanted to do.
So those of us who don’t have thugs, who are not even aligned to going this way…
Are you saying you don’t have thugs, what about inducement, money to induce the voters.
By the time I finished paying my voters, I mean paying my agents, all I had left..
Which is legal ?
Yes, all I had left was less than N17 million and it is at that time that the APC and the PDP candidates were coming out with billions.
Billions or millions?
Billions. Throughout this election, I have been to each and every local government in Adamawa State, I have been to so many wards in Adamawa State, I have seen virtually each and every stakeholder, every sector in the society and met with them.
Did you give them money when you visited them?
There is a tradition, when you visit people, you give them gifts, what I do is to give clothes or perfumes.
They are souvenirs?
Yes, or perfume or wristwatches and then my book that I published on Court and Politics.
But is that not inducement in your estimation?
No, this is conventional, this is traditional and when I go I meet with the traditional rulers, I met with each and every traditional ruler. But one in Adamawa State and that one, two times I wanted to meet him, that is HRH the Moronbula, two times I wanted to meet him but two times he was not in and then two times he gave me appointment and two times I was not able to make it, these things happen.
Other than him, I met with each and every traditional ruler in the state, I met with virtually all the religious leaders in the state, I met with virtually all the associations, I mean farmers association, women groups, youth groups, every stakeholders’.
I went to the villages and I met with the women, I met with the children, I saw the endemic poverty in Adamawa State and we sat with them and we discussed with them, together we formulated our solutions to these problems and then I extracted from them commitment of support.
Only on election day that the PDP and the APC came up with their tactics of vote buying, inducement and then aggression. So this is what happened in Adamawa and this is how the election took place in Adamawa.
Therefore I am not surprised that we ended up having PDP and APC fighting each other, you know cutting the throats of each other.
Now, what happened on that day. The first day of election before the supplementary?
My state collation officer had a virtual interview with you and he told you exactly, you know, the position of the SDP in the election in Adamawa State. It was as he described it, ”a naked dance of shame in the market place”. That was what happened; these two things of inducement, vote buying and then aggression.
I am finding it difficult to pin down some of these allegations to specific personalities. For instance after the main election, that is the first leg, it was the governor who was crying foul, now just yesterday, it was Binani who was crying foul. Today INEC was responding to Binani saying her claim that INEC officials were compromised during the second segment of the election is unfounded. Where do you belong? You have not been saying anything let me use this word.
You see, in the 72 hours before INEC finally took the decision to resume collation, what transpired within these 72 hours? Three key things happened.
One, is the issue of electoral fraud. Two, is the issue of bribery and three, is the issue of electoral violence.
Now the electoral fraud and bribery are alleged to have been committed by the APC candidate in collusion with some INEC officials in the state. And the bribery and electoral violence is alleged, this one there is even evidence, to have been committed by the PDP candidate in the state, in collusion with some maybe INEC officers or the state security operatives.
Okay, let’s start with the APC. You said Binani and some INEC officials; does she have any connection with INEC? She is not just a senator, right?
Now, the three key issues of electoral fraud, of bribery, of violence, you have seen all these three.
The electoral fraud is the coming of the REC to usurp the duties and the responsibilities of the returning officer, Prof. Mele, and then without concluding the collation, he now declared her as governor elect.
So you think he was induced? Because Binani issued a statement that…
Wait a minute, let’s analyze it. Less than three minutes after his declaration that Binani won the election, Binani was holding an acceptance speech and NTA was there.
So what it tells you is this, that it is not a coincidence that there is a collusion between the INEC officials, allegedly, well, at least you can deduce, INEC officials, the candidate herself and then the NTA because you cannot hold these things, all these things cannot happen in less than 10 hours, 15 minutes.
There are other reporters from various media houses…
But why I am saying NTA is because, you see, first I told you the election was not free, and I explained what I meant.
Now the election was also not fair, it was not fair in the sense that, first and foremost the APC candidate, we saw the president you know Buhari made a national broadcast in Hausa asking the people of Adamawa to go and vote for Binani and that he had worked with Binani in PTF and Binani was good and this and that, I have no problem with that.
Yes because it is within his right…
Yea, I have no problem with that but the fallout of that presidential broadcast is what I had problem with because from the moment the president made that broadcast, the entire agencies, federal agencies in Adamawa State tilted towards her.
Read complete interview at www.dailytrust.com
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