Last week, as if to reinforce the fact that very few positive things happen in the polity, the Nigeria Police Command in Kogi State indicated that suspected gunmen had attacked David Mike, secretary of the state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal. In a statement issued in Lokoja, the state capital, William Aya, the police spokesperson in the state, said that Mike was waylaid on Monday, December 4, on his way to work and that the gunmen made away with petition documents filed by four political parties, namely Action Alliance (AA), Action People’s Party (APP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP). Aya added that two record books and a bag containing the secretary’s personal items were also stolen at gunpoint. Naturally, the incident led to the exchange of brickbats between the two leading parties in the state, namely the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP alleged that the attack was perpetrated by hired political thugs.

In a statement issued by its counsel, J.S. Okutepa (SAN), the SDP stated that at the time the attack occurred, the secretary had copies of the election petition filed on December 2 by the legal team of Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, the SDP governorship candidate, and the SDP. “The said petition was filed on 2/12/2023. The petition is No: EPT/KG/Gov/03/2023. The said petition was duly received and stamped on 2/12/2023 and certified by Mr U. D. Mike On the said date. By the provisions of Section 285(5) of the 1999 Constitution, election petitions are to be filed within 21 days after the date of the declaration of the result of the election”, Okutepa noted. However, in a statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC campaign council, Kingsley Fanwo, the party claimed that the alleged attack on the Election Petitions Tribunal’s secretary was a desperate move by the SDP in the state as well as ethnic jingoists to paint the state as unsafe. According to Fanwo, the move was “to cover up their already exposed plans of filing petition against the November 11 election outside the period allowed under the Electoral Act.”

Truth be told, last week’s incident in Kogi State is both shameful and embarrassing. The state is becoming notorious for bad news, and it is highly unfortunate. Only recently, the residence of the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) was attacked by gunmen, and the incident led to the trading of blames by the main political parties in the state.

During the recently concluded governorship election in the state, there were so many attacks on people. As we noted in a previous editorial, there were widespread cases of voter intimidation, killings, ballot box snatching and massive vote buying. Indeed, suspected vote buyers, including a local government chairman, were arrested. Huge stashes of cash were recovered by anti-graft agencies from suspected vote buyers. There were also reported cases of circumvention of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines by some unscrupulous INEC officials, while pre-filled result sheets were found in some local councils in the state.

To be sure, the widespread insecurity in the country, not just Kogi State, has to be addressed promptly and decisively. How do you speak of justice when electoral petitions are brazenly stolen in broad daylight? Besides, where were the petitions being taken to? The level of degeneration and brigandage in the country today means that nothing can be ruled out regarding negative and patently criminal behaviour. It is difficult to believe that the country is now at a level where brigands waylay court officials in broad daylight and on the road in order to dispossess them of files and materials relating to pending election cases at gunpoint. Is that meant to foist a fait accompli on the petitioners or arm-twist the judiciary, or both? What kind of society functions at such a degenerate level? The impression being created is that in Kogi State, it is now impossible to have credible elections and conduct clean election petitions thereafter. This is a development that should worry all. Swift arrest of the perpetrators of such incidents is certainly needed.

We hope that the authorities will go all out and expose all those perpetrating these attacks on the election system and those behind them. The present system of government must not be hijacked by those who believe they can hide under brigandage to get whatever they want from the system. The outlaws will strike again if they get away with this crime.

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