Plans to conduct and win the forthcoming elections are in high gear. Tension is building up. The fear is palpable. The stakes are high. The contenders (candidates) of the different political parties are battle ready. And the spectators (voters) are armed with their Permanent Voters Cards. Yet, violence perpetrators are equally orchestrating plots to unleash mayhem for their pay maters to win the elections by crooks and by all means.
Insecurity Past In Akwa Ibom
Akwa Ibom state, a leading oil-producing state in Niger Delta region, has been a PDP-controlled state since the return to civilian rule in 1999. The PDP Governors include Obong Victor Attah (1999-2007), Dr. Godswill Akpabio (2007-2015) and Mr. Udom Emmanuel (2015-present).
A report by All Africa under the title: Nigeria’s 2019 Elections- Six States To Watch says “In the local government elections on December 2, 2017, PDP won the state’s 31 local government areas. Akwa Ibom has a history of election-related violence, including deadly clashes between supporters of opposing parties and assassinations of candidates. In March 2011, more than 12 people were killed in a fight between supporters of the PDP and the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, with extensive property damage, including the campaign office of then-President Goodluck Jonathan. In the 2011 governorship election, both main parties reportedly employed thugs in the state: the most violent incident, after a campaign rally, left several dead and many injured, the president’s campaign office destroyed, and about 500 private and official vehicles burned.
In 2012, at least seven people were killed in violent clashes after the PDP’s councillorship primaries. Several attacks occurred during the 2015 campaign, including the assassination of the deputy speaker of the State House of Assembly, the APC’s Obong Okon Uwah, who was seeking re-election. In the 2015 elections, INEC reported, five of 66 violent election incidents occurred in Akwa Ibom.
Akwa Ibom has a growing culture of violence. In the second quarter of 2018, 46 people were killed in communal conflict, violent criminality, gang and cult clash and other forms of violence. “With 46 casualties, Akwa Ibom, most violent state in Niger Delta”, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, 11 August 2018. From 2016 to 2018, many were killed, abducted and raped in Etim Ekpo and Ukanafun communities by secret cultists turned aggrieved youths. Later that year, Akwa Ibom Government through the state Police Command banned 39 cult groups.
The state is an emerging battleground in the APC-PDP battle for revenue. It receives the most federal money of any state, and it is widely believed to be a pillar of PDP finances.
A second factor is partisan rancour in the state, aggravated by the split between PDP Governor Udom Emmanuel and his estranged godfather, Godswill Akpabio, as well as the struggle for control of the state House of Assembly. Emmanuel, a key figure in Akpabio’s state cabinet, was his anointed heir in 2015. He was the secretary to the state government from 2013 to 2014, before he joined the race for the state governorship race.
However, their relationship turned sour later. Some attribute the falling-out to Emmanuel’s alleged reluctance to complete some projects started by Akpabio; others say it was a dispute over control of the state machinery; few say the relationship soured as a result of a petition Emmanuel routed to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC through President Muhammadu Buhari for Akpabio’s probe.
On August 8, 2018, Akpabio defected to APC and switched his support to Nsima Ekere, who later emerged as the APC’s governorship candidate. He was Akpabio’s deputy governor for 17 months from May 2011 to October 2012. He resigned to avoid impeachment planned by the state’s House of Assembly, after he fell out of favour with his principal. In November 2016, President Buhari appointed him managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission. He retained that post while running for governor but was said to have resigned in January 2019.
The chaotic situation plunged when five state House of Assembly members defected to APC as well as two commissioners in Emmanuel’s cabinet resigned. The PDP-dominated House responded by declaring vacant the defectors’ seats. Idongesit Ituen who represented Itu sought an injunction from a federal high court in the state capital, Uyo, but the House rejected his request but upheld a countersuit filed by House Speaker Onofiok Luke.
Amid the heated inter-party wrangling, the five embattled defectors held a session at which they “sacked” Speaker Luke and replaced him with one of their own, Nse Ntuen. That action invited a police siege of the House, ostensibly to prevent factional clashes. Two days after police lifted the siege, as directed by the Senate, the five defectors met again, allegedly trying to impeach Governor Emmanuel, who was backed by PDP lawmakers. The five, along with some of their supporters, were battered and dispersed by a band of security personnel and thugs, led by the governor himself.
Prior to the postponed elections on February 16, violence erupted in Obot Akara resulting in the death of two persons while 13 vehicles were burnt at INEC office, Nto Edino in Obot Akara.
Before now, Governor Emmanuel had told AIT correspondents in Onna that PDP would deploy 1,000 youths as vote defenders to all the voting units in the state. Reports from the field showed that PDP had outsmarted APC by flooding all the units with people of suspicious character before the postponed elections.
Akwa Ibom Flashpoints
So far, INEC has rescheduled February 23 and March 2, 2019 for presidential/National Assembly and Governorship/House of Assembly elections in the country. Though Akwa Ibom is mouthed as the most peaceful state in the country, indications are rife that there may be breakdown of law and order in some local government areas regarded as flashpoints and battleground. In other words, there are flashpoints which adequate security measures must be beefed up to allow for free, fair and credible elections. The areas are described “exogenous” flashpoint meaning that the areas have witnessed violence in recent times and “endogenous” flashpoint meaning that the areas are prone to violence, according to a criminologist.
In an interview with Straightnews, Dr. Emmanuel Francis Ikpe, an Akwa Ibom-born criminologist defines flashpoint as “an area perceived to be troubled spot, a point where the norms and values of the society are not respected. It is a point where security agencies and right thinking people in the society should focus attention on.”
Ikpe said “In Akwa Ibom, there are remnant local government areas where youth uprisings and trans-border crisis occurred. These places are Etim Ekpo, Oruk Anam, Ika and Ukanafun local government areas. In these areas, abduction, kidnappings and arm struggle took place.
“In the recent development, we may also add Obot Akara as a flashpoint. This is because of the sad incident which took place on the election eve in the area. The two contending candidates for Senate come from the senatorial district- one from Obot Akara and another from Essien Udim. What happened in Obot Akara could be described pre-arranged, organised crime.”
According to him, “However, there may be election struggle in swing places like Uyo which has huge votes. Uyo can be seen as an endogenous flashpoint in that crisis has not occurred yet. This is because of the volume of votes in Uyo.
“Other local government areas with large of votes and where there may be vote struggle are Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Essien Udim, Onna Mkpat Enin and Oruk Anam. The local government areas have thick population and votes. In Oron Federal Constituency comprising five local government areas, there may be exogenous power struggle for votes. Oron will be a shopping ground for both All Progressives Congress, APC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“Ini local government area could be seen as exogenous too. The place has always been a wild, wild area. Before the opposition, there used to be an internal problem- boundary issue. Most of the characters are prone to perpetrate violence. Let us see Ini as end-to-exogenous flashpoint which may erupt at any point in time.
“In Uruan, I do not foresee any violence. I have done participant-observation and I can say that there would not be. The two contenders are from the same area. The APC and PDP candidates hail from Southern Uruan. The shopping ground will be Central and Northern Uruan.
“In Ibiono Ibom, I can see inferiority complex because of a sitting and an aspiring Senator. I know Ibiono may not be what we think. I do not see a situation where indigenes of Ibiono Ibom would abandon their son to vote for another person who is not from the place. I do not foresee uprisings in the area in this election, but there will be more uprisings in the governorship election in the state.”
Hon. Bassey Etim (Bafil) from Uruan is aspiring for Senate under APC.
On the security measures to be put in place to ward off potential violence, he said “I commend the security operatives for being proactive. I know they have put in enough manpower to curb any upsurge of violence.
“But, I want the Federal government to deploy more personnel to the field. For instance, I went round from Uyo, Ibesikpo, Nsit Ubium to Eket on the morning of the postponed election. I saw only few policemen on the road. I think the government should engage members of Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Nigerian Prisons Service, NPS, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC and other para-military bodies to monitor the elections.
The criminologist who is also a sociologist advised people mostly candidates to see elections as sport, noting “During the forthcoming elections, there should not be violence if people see it as sport. When people win, their opponents congratulate them and if they lose, they take it in good faith. There is a sitting governor and the opposition party trying to upstage the governor.”
So far, the Nigeria Police Force had deployed more than 300,000 personnel nationwide to provide security for the postponed presidential/National Assembly elections on Saturday.
This is as Nigeria Police Commission deployed 400 monitors to the states in the country.
It was gathered that nearly every police officer out of the over 350,000 policemen in the country would be actively involved in election duties.
Already, Mohammed Adamu, the acting Inspector-General of Police, has deployed six Deputy Inspectors-General of Police to supervise elections in the six geo-political regions in the country.
