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The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Abia State, Prince Solomon Soyebi, Monday in Abuja paid a heavy price for his neutrality in Saturday's gubernatorial election in Abia State.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Abia State, Prince Solomon Soyebi, Monday in Abuja paid a heavy price for his neutrality in Saturday's gubernatorial election in Abia State. He was waylaid and beaten up at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport by political thugs believed to belong to the defeated gubernatorial candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Onyema Ugochukwu.
Daily Sun gathered that the INEC commissioner had flown into Abuja from Owerri with the last flight of Aero Contractors airline - a flight which also had Ugochukwu and other top PDP leaders from the South-East on board.
Sporting a golf cap atop a black, short-sleeve safari suit, Ugochukwu was said to have started the fracas as soon as passengers alighted from the aircraft when he confronted the INEC officer.
Eyewitness accounts said the PDP man who lost last Saturday's guber election in Abia to Chief Theodore A. Orji of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) had actually slapped the electoral commissioner whom he called "a big fool".
The action was said to have spurred on his thugs and the mobile policeman attached to him, as they soon pounced on Soyebi, beating him up and accusing him of having rigged the Abia election to favour the PPA, the party of incumbent governor Orji Uzor Kalu who is also the party's candidate in this weekend's presidential election.
Apparently shocked by the attack on the INEC commissioner, former senate president, Chief Evan Enwerem, who was also on the flight began to shout to help bring the situation under control. "This is not democracy", Enwerem shouted. "The man has done his job. Leave him alone", the former senate president was quoted to have said.
But if the thugs had any intention of stopping, the utterances of Chief Ojo Maduekwe, the PDP national secretary, who was also on the same flight further bolstered them.
A furious Maduekwe who had a cowboy cap over his striped shirt was equally screaming at the top of his voice to drown Enwerem's pleas. "He is a foolish man. We did everything for him. We offered him everything and you said you're born again," Maduekwe charged.
The PDP scribe further accused the INEC commissioner of indirectly cutting him away from his Abia State village, by letting PDP lose in Abia. "He does not want me to be able to get to my village again", Maduekwe fumed.
But even as his assailants continued to rough-handle him, Soyebi maintained his ground: "I am a born again Christian…You cannot be more pro-Obasanjo than me…Obasanjo has done several things for me before now…there was no way I could help anybody. PPA won the election… if there was any help to give, it was to ensure that the PDP was not rigged out."
However, it finally took the intervention of men of the Nigerian Air Force who came to Soyebi's rescue to avert what could have been a major tragedy, as the thugs appeared determined to snuff life out of the INEC officer.
The Air Force men were said to have been called onto the scene by an aide of the Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi who was equally on the flight.
Speaking to Daily Sun later, the governor's aide who pleaded for anonymity said that "all through the flight, as passengers discussed the elections, the consensus was that the Abia election was the freest and fairest."
Reacting to the development, a PPA chieftain told Daily Sun that it was "senseless for anyone to accuse PPA of compromising the electoral commissioner".
He continued: "The man is from Abeokuta, the home of President Olusegun Obasanjo. When he was posted to Abia, he arrived on Thursday - barely 48 hours to the election - and never even paid a courtesy call on the state governor until the whole electoral process was over".
Incidentally, the Abia election has been adjudged by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the EU and a handful of other pro-democracy institutions as the freest election that held in the country last Saturday.
The PPA spokesperson, however, attributed the action of the PDP faithful in Abuja to the stance of the party's national leadership and the presidency. "It is in the spirit of do-and-die, as enunciated by the president and the topmost echelon of the PDP".
The Aero Contractor flight which had departed Owerri at about 5:30 pm, apart from Ugochukwu, Maduekwe, Enwerem and Governor Peter Obi, also had many dignitaries, including top Igbo traditional rulers and PDP factional chairman in Abia, Chief Alfredo Awa, all of who were eyewitnesses to the shameful drama.