Saturday letter2
With a strong pro-Atiku push to wit, I’d’ve my conscience in smithereens by now if I had partook as a collation officer in the last presidential and national assembly elections, a position everyone assumed was automatically opened to all university lecturers. The anecdotal tale just told by my good friend, Dr. James Amgbafi of the Department of Electrical Engineering, about his experience as a collation officer at Kutigi in Lavun Local Government Area of Niger State got me really worried; even though everyone knew from the ThisDay opinion poll that Candidate Atiku Abubakar will lose in Niger State, it was shocking that agents of the Niger State Government, according to Dr. Amgbafi, sought to pressure him upon threats to life and limb and cash inducement to suppress vote-numbers for Atiku Abubakar or annul them totally. Dr. Amgbafi resisted the threats and monetary gift but how many other collation officers succumbed? Informal findings show that not much is the answer. I, along with another conscientious objector, Dr. Salihu Saidu of the Department of Geography was glad not to partake in the flawed INEC’s exercise.
Sunday Adole Jonah,
Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State
