Delta Guber: YPP candidate says position for highest bidder

…calls for Sovereign National Conference

By Tunde Opalana

Candidate of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) in Saturday’s governorship election in Delta State, Comrade (Dr) Sunny Ofehe said the highest bidder was declared winner of the poll.

He said what was witnessed at the March 18 election was a mere selection where huge fraud was sadly perpetrated.

Ofehe alleged that chieftains of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) “were variously in connivance with the umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which endorsed the charade, caricature and show of shame .

Stressing that the sad scenario in the election has reinforced the tag on the nation as “fantastically corrupt”, the giber candidate claimed the YPP has substantial amount of evidence to expose the tremendous fraud that took place across polling units and wards in each of the 25 local government councils in the state”.

The YPP guber candidate ventilated his anger and the grievance of the party at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to him, the good people of Delta State were disenfranchised and denied right to free choice of their political leaders by widespread thuggery, vote buying, concoction of figures at collation centres and the likes.

Ofere queried why should INEC budget such humongous sum of money “only to midwife this sham and jamboree?” asking if it is not better for INEC “to advertise elective positions in the media and open a bidding process for the highest bidders to be announced instead of wasting money of tax-payers who are given false hope that they’ll elect their leaders?”

Speaking further, he said, “after assurances by the electoral umpire, INEC, gruelling campaigns by various parties and debates all of which raised the consciousness and hopes of the people for a better election, influence of money owing to weaponization of poverty in the land played unfortunate role in the elections. Elective positions therefore largely went to the highest bidder. This is not the democracy Nigeria truly wants. This is not the democracy | decided to participate in. Our democracy, indeed, failed to evolve one notch higher! Sad!

“With governance thrown to incapable hands, the economy of our dear Delta State will more likely bleed in the wilderness in the next four years.

“We must not continue like this. We must not continue to sweep under the carpet the fraud that has characterised our elections. As an environmental, human and political rights activist, | will, everywhere in the globe | chance to, continue to shame these polls that were less than free, less than credible and hence unfair. It is hoped that this approach has the beneficial effect of deepening our electoral system.”

Stating his position, Ofere said “to provide permanent solution, | recommend that the President of Nigeria who will be sworn in on 29 May 2023, must convoke a National Conference to deliberate on all aspects of Nigeria Elections, from Party Primaries to INEC General Elections.

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“The resolutions arrived at in the National Conference must be articulated as new Election Reform Bills to be passed into Laws by Nigeria’s Legislature and signed by Mr. President of Nigeria.

Barring the election irregularities, he said he is the most capable, credible, competent and generally acceptable candidate for the Delta State Governorship seat.