OSHIOMHOLE IS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, SAYS WORKS MINISTER

Works Minister, Mike Onolememen has expressed shocked over allegations by the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole that he used his security escort to rig election in the last Tuesday council election.

Describing the allegations as baseless, Onolememen said he was at a loss how a mere ‘VIP’ Protection Escort could have rigged an election covering 106 polling booths in 11 wards spread across the Local Government Areas in the presence of well over 200 armed policemen.

In a statement signed by his Special Assistant (Media), Tony Ikpasaja, the minister noted that the "good people of Edo State and indeed Nigerians are living witnesses to the duplicity and deficiency in the character of the self-professed apostle of One-Man-One-Vote.’
The minister described the Tuesday election as the fairest in the history of local government elections in the state despite the fact that many people were disenfranchised ‘through deliberate delay as accreditation and voting started at about 2pm in most polling booths."

Onolememen further revealed said that ‘to the amazement of all, while the votes were still being collated and counted as at 7 pm at the collation centre in Uromi, headquarters of Esan North East Local Government Council, the ‘Emperor’ Governor Oshiomhole’s Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (EDSIEC) went on air in Benin City, about 80 kilometres away, to announce a ‘forged and contrary’ result declaring the APC candidate, Sam Oboh, as winner.

Accusing Governor Oshiomhole as an ‘Emperor’ with a track record of telling serial lies, Onolememen denied ever rigging the votes as claimed by Governor Oshiomhole ‘who was not smart enough to tell Nigerians whether it was the result that were ‘forcefully’ signed in Uromi that he (Oshiomhole) now used in declaring Sam Oboh as Chairman or the one signed in Government House in Benin City.’

Onolememen also described Oshiomhole as crafty ‘in his game of fooling Nigerians all the time with his rhetoric’ and called on Nigerians, especially the media to beam searchlight on him since he has become a danger to the nation’s nascent democracy through his pronouncements and acts.

‘Executive lawlessness of the kind being displayed by Governor Oshiomhole should never be tolerated in Nigeria if the current democracy is to endure,’ the minister warned.
Source: Daily Times