Edo 2020: Igini slams APC, challenges party to present consultation images

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini, has slammed leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State over accusations of consultations with incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 19 Edo governorship election manipulate the electoral process for PDP’s victory. Igini considered it an unnecessary affront for APC to link him with the Edo governorship election when he is not the REC in Edo State. He also wondered how Edo APC leaders embarrassed him with falsehood of a front for Governor Obaseki to induce electoral administrators to manipulate the Edo poll for the PDP candidate. Igini did not only construe the accusations ridiculous but sheer mischief and libelous.

Igini had in a statement narrated how he had travelled by road from Akwa Ibom State to Delta State for the funeral ceremony, August 23rd to 25^th, of the mother of a close friend in Aniocha North. He was to visit home later but had to return to Lagos on August 25 where the family resides. Then, he spent a night in Benin on Sunday from where he proceeded to Delta State. Igini maintained that he went to Lagos, not Benin City on the night of August 25, pointing out that Mayaki was wrong in saying he went with two other persons to hold meeting with Governor Obaseki. The INEC REC, then, protested that the Chairman, Edo State APC Media Campaign Council, John Mayaki, authored “libellous report” against him. Igini challenged Mayaki to present the images the APC claimed it has on him.
According to Igini: “Is it possible for an individual to be at two different locations the same night?; It is hoped that Mayaki will be able to present those images and other material evidence in court at the right time.”

Igini noted that such “barefaced lies, very absurd and nonsensical insinuations,” would have been ignored, adding that he had worse attacks during elections, when desperate “political actors/election riggers with little or no regard for institutional pillars of democratic society continued to destroy institutions of the state and personal reputation people have built over the years.”
The INEC REC  questioned  the authority he has to recruit those “imaginary youth carpers members” for the for governorship election when he is not the Edo REC. Igini decried the quality of current leaders in Nigeria.
“This unfortunate situation is a reflection of the low quality of people who are now involved in politics and how low political decorum have sunk in our society that one can no longer go through Benin and even dare to stop-over to see family members, all because of elections that one has no interest in its outcome.
It is necessary to “disabuse the minds of innocent and decent people of Edo and all other citizens who may be confused in thinking that all members of decent society are unable to make the distinction between the decorum that high office demands from public officials and the scurrilous chatter of the political echo-chambers of politicians and their supporters,” Igini declared.

He was of the view that his pedigree for transparent, free and fair elections, including advocacy for accountability in governance, may have frightened his attackers to ridiculously link him with  unethical conduct, considering his human rights activism record. It was added that he stopped election riggers in Akwa Ibom State in 2019, and that might have made Edo APC fret in anticipation that he may be drafted to assist in supervising the governorship election.