The Delta State governorship candidate of the Young Progressive Congress, YPP, Dr Sunny Ofehe has vowed to take evidence gathered from Saturday’s governorship and State Assembly elections to the International Community for appropriate action against Nigeria.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Dr Ofehe claimed that the election in Delta which he participated in was laced with financial inducement, ballot paper snatching and all forms of manipulations, lamenting that the exercise was an embarrassment to the most populous black nations of the world.
In what he described as ‘selection’ and not ‘election’, Ofehe said, the international community was interested in Nigeria’s election more than any country because of the population and the need for Nigeria to set democratic example, but that the financial investments of the European Union, EU, United Nations and other foreign nations into the exercise have been a waste, given the fraud he claimed to have witnessed.
On why he would not approach election tribunal as enshrined in the Constitution and Electoral Act as amended, Ofehe who is based in Europe before coming to participate in election expressed disbelief in Nigerian Courts, insisting that he will act differently using international instruments to ensure that the next election in 2027 would not be a ruse.
According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress which are the two dominant political parties were involved in thuggery and electoral malfeasance in Delta State, thereby making a great number of Deltans disenfranchised, adding that the rigging was made possible in connivance with some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, who were detailed to Delta State.
He said: “The good people of Delta State were disenfranchised and denied the right to free choice of their political leaders by widespread thuggery, vote buying, concoction of figures at collation centres and the likes.
“Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress were variously in connivance with the umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission which endorsed the charade, caricature and show of shame. This sad scenario in the elections has reinforced the tag on the nation as ‘fantastically corrupt.
“I am a Nigerian in Diaspora based in the Netherlands, Europe and widely travelled across Europe Continent and North America Continent. I am in a good position to make a comparison between our democracy in Nigeria and democratic practice in civilised countries overseas.
