their bone marrows when on a live telecast of 2015 Presidential,
Senatorial and House of Representatives elections reported on Sunday,
March 29, 2015 that the incumbent governor of Imo State and the All
progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Chief Rochas
Okorocha tore the result sheets of the House of Representatives and
Senatorial results in Orlu Senatorial zone which favoured the
candidates of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the reporter, the governor arrived at the collation
centre in Orlu and demanded for the result sheets. Out of courtesy the
returning officer gave him the result sheets only for the Governor to
tear the sheets when he discovered that the APC candidates lost
woefully to their PDP counterparts. Let me say immediately that it was
wrong for the returning officer to have given the result sheets to the
governor or any other person for that matter. This action of the
governor has since generated a lot of dust in Imo State.
In the same vein it has raised a lot of issues concerning the
suitability or otherwise of Okorocha as a governor considering the
temperament he displayed at the collation centre. It may be recalled
that in the recent past the governor was accused of ordering a group
of thugs to beat up and disband a peaceful protest by widows in
Owerri. Equally, accusing fingers were pointed at him for the
disruption of a governorship debate organized by the Catholic Church
in Owerri a few weeks ago. Though he denied all these allegations,
many were not convinced that he was not culpable but decided to give
him a benefit of doubt. However he cannot extricate himself from this
recent incident of tearing result sheets which is to say the least
bizarre and condemnable.
It was done in the presence of electoral officers, returning officers,
party agents, journalists and security officials. One of the
implications is that it would appear that he has no respect for due
process of law. This is one of the allegations which Rt. Hon. Emeka
Ihedioha, the PDP governorship candidate leveled against him at the
unveiling of his manifesto in Owerri last week. Under the electoral
law and electoral guidelines, he had no business being at the
collation centre in Orlu where the Independent National Electoral
Commission compiled the results.
He was not a presidential candidate. He was not a Senatorial
Candidate. He was not a House of Representatives candidate. In fact to
put it clearly, he was there illegally. Further, the act of tearing
result sheets is a criminal offence for which he would still be
prosecuted after leaving office when he no longer enjoys any immunity.
Again, some people have wondered whether Okorocha would have been so
brazen to tear the result sheets if he did not enjoy immunity as
provided by the constitution. What example if any can Okorocha be said
to be showing to other citizens of the state and the country at large?
Seriously, for a governor of a state to descend so low as to tear
result sheets is demeaning of that office.
What is more, it shows a total lack of respect and disdain for the
opinion of the electorates who have the right to freely vote for
candidates of their choice. Even more worrisome is that this act of
Okorocha is coming on the heels of the arrest by the police in Imo
State of his Senior Special Adviser on Security, Mr. Okechukwu
Okorocha (not a relation) with arms and the arrest also of underaged
voters from a school run by him and known as Rochas Foundation on the
day of the election.
Compatriots, if Okorocha could tear result sheets of elections where
he is not a contestant because his party APC lost to PDP, what would
happen on April 11, 2015 if he looses the election to Emeka Ihedioha
of the PDP? Okorocha's action also throws up for review the advice of
the Inspector General of Police that people should go home after
voting to avoid crisis or violence on the day of election.
Of course, INEC had countered this advice by saying that people can
hang around the polling centres or collation centres, if they are
peaceful and can maintain a safe and reasonable distance. However, one
wonders what would have happened if PDP supporters of the candidates
who won the elections that the result sheets were torn were not
restrained and they went ahead in their thousands to attack Okorocha.
Certainly blood would have flowed.
Consequently, my advice for Okorocha is that just like he defeated an
incumbent governorm Mr. Ikedi Ohakim in 2011 and that governor went
back home peacefully without inciting violence, if on April 11, 2015
he loses the gubernatorial poll to Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP, he
should quietly vacate the seat of governorship at Douglas House in
Owerri and go home. He should know that there is life after staying in
power. He should not incite violence by his conduct nor engage in
anymore macabre dance because Imo state is bigger than any one
individual.
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