Facts have emerged of how last week’s news from the
Delta State Police Command that sensitive Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) documents were
allegedly stolen by an official of the state chapter of the
Labour Party (LP), as sources claim that Governor Ifeanyi
Okowa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the police, and
INEC orchestrated the scene to discredit the current
electoral petition by LP against the PDP.
The State Police Command had on August 30th, 2015,
raised the alarm through a widely circulated statement of
arresting and detaining some officials of the Labour Party
for stealing sensitive documents from INEC in relation to
the state’s just-concluded governorship and House of
Assembly elections.
The police said they arrested and interrogated the state
chairman of the Labour Party, Tony Ezeagwu, and a man
named Onodawerho Esiri as the prime suspect, and sent a
police report from Asaba to the ongoing governorship
election petition tribunal against the Labour Party.
The police also said the document theft was carried out last
week.
But a certified true copy of the police report addressed to
the commissioner of police, signed by Deputy
Commissioner of Police (DCP) Hafiz M. Inuwa, and
obtained by SaharaReporters is dated June 25th of this
year.
The police report, with reference number CR3000/DTS/
SD3/VOL/3/230, said that a prima facie case of forgery and
falsification was established. It also noted that the police
acted on a tip-off swooped on a popular hotel located in the
metropolis of Asaba, the Delta State capital and found the
suspects in possession of INEC original copies of results
relating to the just concluded governorship election in the
state.
"The recovered and identified result sheets are sensitive
materials that should not be found outside the custody of
INEC or officials of INEC and that the person that stole the
result sheet is the person that stands to gain advantage at
the Electoral Petition Tribunal if INEC could not produce the
result sheets when the tribunal demands for it.
"Two staff of INEC staff connived with the agents of the
Labour Party were interrogated, following the discovery of
the exhibits, INEC did a stock taking of its strong room and
discovered that a total of 117 results sheets for
governorship election and 20 house of Assembly election
are missing from their strong room,” the report stated.
Speaking to SaharaReporters under the condition of
anonymity, an employee of Dema Hotels, located at Ezenei
Avenue, Asaba, where prime suspect Mr. Esiri was said to
have been arrested by the police, corroborated the
document, and disclosed that the incident happened
sometime in June this year.
The hotel source said that the hotel owner is a kinsman of
Governor Okowa who was in on the plot. He also claimed
Mr. Esiri was set up. “Barely a few minutes [after arriving,
Mr. Esiri] locked up his room and went out,” the source
said. "After [Mr. Esiri left], the manager of the Hotel
immediately left and after few minutes he came back with a
team of some policemen from the state police headquarters
with a vehicle and sat in the hotel reception. Shortly, Mr.
Onodawerho Esiri returned and was accosted by the police
at the reception where he was asked what he was doing
with INEC sensitive electoral materials in his room.
"Immediately one of the officers just rushed to the vehicle
and brought a bag of 'Ghana Must Go' loaded with INEC
materials, and Mr. Onodawerho Esiri was [arrested] and
handcuffed at the reception by the police and taken straight
to the police headquarters and was charged to court.”
The source claims that the move was made to discredit the
LP petition against Governor Okowa, noting that Mr.
Ezeagwu was brought into the case when there is no
evidence that he was implicated. He also questioned why
the incident, which he claims occurred in June, is suddenly
being brought to light by the police within the last week.
The police said it has concluded plans to charge the
suspects to court for conspiracy to steal, forgery, and
receiving of stolen INEC property.
Reacting to the matter, Mr. Ezeagwu stated that the whole
issue was a high-level political conspiracy to indict him in
the stage managed crime and truncate his party's petition
before the election tribunal.
"The police report on the matter accusing me [of] ‘aiding
and abetting’ was all a plan by the ruling PDP in the state to
frustrate petitions at the tribunal,” Mr. Ezeagwu said. “I just
laughed when I saw a police report after my invitation,
indicting me for aiding and abetting crime. It is very
unfortunate that the police is allowing itself to be used for
political blackmail. They say my offense is that I once
provided a hotel accommodation for one Esiri who was
arrested by the police for allegedly stealing INEC materials
during last April elections in the state."
Mr. Ezeagwu said that the LP had never sent anybody to
steal electoral materials, as the PDP was making the world
believe, and said that the LP already has sufficient evidence
to back the petition at the tribunal.
“This a ploy to drag our party into crime and see how it can
help them at the tribunal, because they have a bad case,
and they know it," he said.
A statement released by the state government last Friday
had alleged that the State Police Command had uncovered
plot by some officials of the Labour Party in the state to
tender fake election results sheets at the tribunal.
Source : SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK
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