Breaking News: UNN professor exposes how LP used Nigerian military to rig guber election in Nsukka

Ezike Jude

All may not have heard about the militarization of Nsukka Local Government Area in the just concluded 2023 governorship and State Assembly elections in Enugu State as a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ugwueze Thaddeus has narrated how the governorship election was rigged in favor of Chijioke Edeoga, the Labour Party governorship candidate.

The 58-year professor of Psychology has in an On-Air radio program today on Lion FM 91.1, Nsukka disclosed that the manner the institutions of government were used as a tool by the politicians to rig elections in Nigeria is such that will have overbearing consequences on our democracy.

He narrated that on the eve of the governorship election in Enugu State, most of the community in Enugu North senatorial district, especially Nsukka witnessed an influx of Nigerian military to the extent that fear gripped residents of those areas, most especially in Nsukka town were angry-looking military men were spotted in all the streets with their armored tanks situated at every junction of the town.

According to the professor, the three major entrance gates leading to the university were barricaded by the military with their armored tanks as if there was prior information that there was going to be a Boko Haram attack in the school. He said that most of the students by then have traveled because there was a break and the environment was quiet to the extent that one can easily hear the footsteps of ants coming from a distance.

”From the main entrance gate along University Road, we could see intimidation of voters who have their polling units situated in the university, the electorate was bullied and subjected to all manner of ill-treatments,” he asserted.

He further disclosed that in Ihe ward which is where the community falls under, voters were never allowed to vote after accreditation as they were told to wait until 2PM when every accreditation process must have been concluded, but was surprised to see INEC officials in connivance with the military men and top Labour Party officials carried the election materials into Prince Alexandra Auditorium where all the other officials of INEC across Nsukka town assembled and later manufactured the 30,000 result which was given to Labour Party.

In his views, Prof. Ugwueze maintained that there was no way Ihe ward alone would have given Labour Party 12,567 votes if not that it was rigged. He further referenced the result from the Faculty of Arts polling unit where 2,780 votes were recorded even when 90% of students have vacated the campus.

He ordered a thorough investigation of the activities of some university lecturers and staff as such could not have been done without their participation.

“Injustice is everywhere. People are attacking Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa for the statement he made in the Senate but that is just one out of many. I have heard my colleagues in the university lashing out at him but I told them that we all are guilty of such. Bulkachuwa said his own, it is time for you and me to disclose ours. What of the rigging of the Nsukka governorship election results in the University here? How many of us condemned it? The activities of the military were brazenly seen and no one talked about it. These are men that will stand in front of our children tomorrow as lecturers to teach them, but some collected bribes to assist in rigging the election.

“Are we talking about Bulkachuwa’s statement as it concerns the judiciary? What of other institutions of government that helped in one way or the other to subvert justice? You saw the military engagement here in Nsukka on March 18 being the governorship election. That election was the highest election in the history of Nsukka Local Government where voter apathy was highly recorded, but what happened at the end of the day? They locked the Princess Alexandra Auditorium in full security of the military men, and election results were cooked and served to the people of Enugu State. That is not how we will grow as a country. A situation where the security agents can’t fight for the citizens but bully them because they want to satisfy their master’s interest? A military general from Nsukka will deploy his men and they helped in rigging the election and we call that democracy?”, the professor queried.

Recall that the Enugu State House of Assembly had on April 5, 2023, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and National Assembly to probe the activities of the military in Enugu North during the March 18 governorship and State Assembly elections.