A political juggernaut and former Anambra State 2021 Governorship aspirant, Chief Ike Oligbo, has expressed shock and dismay at the extent of election rigging and criminal malpractice that engulfed the 2023 electoral process.
Speaking to journalists at Nnewi, Anambra State, the Umuoji born award winning international lawyer and business mogul expressed shock and disappointment over what he described as daylight robbery of the people’s mandate through deliberate manipulations of BVAs technology.
Chief Ike Oligbo raised concern over the fraudulent handling of the results collation process, whereby the electoral body INEC allegedly manipulated and falsified figures in front of the world, an action he described as a farce and an international embarrassment.
Following the announcement of the results, the former PDP gubernatorial aspirant lamented the daring scale of rigging that trailed the exercise, especially the presidential election where INEC set aside its own rules and resorted to illegality.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mamoud made it clear before the election that all results must be uploaded and transmitted in real time through the BVAs machine, but the reverse was the case as the presidential election result from the polling units could not be transmitted despite the fact that the National Assembly results were transmitted without network restrictions.
“Simply put, this implies that there was a conscious intention to scuttle the chances of a targeted candidate from emerging victorious, as well as a deliberate plan to illegally return a preferred candidate as elected.
“It is sad to think that the electoral umpire, INEC, under the supervision of a renowned academic professor has turned to a corrupt criminal enterprise which could boldly compromise the credibility of an exercise that gulped N300bn to conduct in front of the whole world, thereby dashing the hopes of 200 million Nigerians, who deserve better than a manipulated transition and making a caricature of citizens of Nigeria, especially the youths who were keen to exercise their rights to vote.
“Honestly, I am totally disappointed, embarrassed and so ashamed to be called a Nigerian in the face of this show of conspiracy, criminality,.betrayal and flagrant disregard to the principles guiding such an exercise of national and international interest.
“Apparently, Nigeria might not recover from the international embarrassment and unnecessary disgrace if the court and the agencies involved fail to correct the anomaly”, he stated.
“The status quo of organized corruption in Nigeria cannot be allowed to continue. The courts must rectify the crazy electoral corruption”, he further stressed.
