Mrs. Joe Odumakin has long association with Tunde Bakare and other known vocal supporters of Segun Mimiko
The family friend also confirmed that Mrs. Odumakin’s husband, Yinka Odumakin, has in fact openly declared his unalloyed support for the Mimiko second term project on several occasion. The Liberty Report has one of such declarations and it is contained in THIS INTERVIEW.
ACN REACTS
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has however accused INEC of engaging in gross partisanship that is capable of ruining the credibility of the October 20 poll.
In a press statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party specifically accused INEC of colluding with the ruling Labour Party (LP) in the state to remove from the list of accredited election observers certain groups they deemed not favourably disposed towards their plan to manipulate the election while retaining those sent by Mimiko.
Despite the national role that the Coalition of Democrats for Election Reforms (CODER) has played as experienced election observer, INEC de-accredited it on the basis of a petition by LP and replaced CODER with Mrs. Joe Odumakin’s Women Arise.
According to the ACN, ”The partisanship of Women Arise as far as the Ondo State election is concerned is glaring as the group is led by Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, wife of Mr. Yinka Odumakin who has publicly declared his support for Governor Olusegun Mimiko in the forthcoming election. Mr. Odumakin is also a known ally of Pastor Tunde Bakare, who has also declared his support for the incumbent governor.
”Another partisan group that has been accredited by INEC to monitor the election is the Rights Monitoring Group (RMG), led by one Femi Aduwo, a visible supporter for the Labour Party in the Social Media. And while each Election Observer group is allowed a maximum of 100 observers, the RMG has been given over 1,500 accreditation tags by this Unit, with the alleged plan that these tags will be utilised by LP thugs who will pose as RMG election observers on October 20.
”It is worth noting that in the midst of all this, CODER has yet to be formally communicated as to why it was de-accredited. Neither was it given the opportunity to defend itself against whatever was contained in the LP petition that INEC relied upon to de-accredit it. This is far from what is expected from a supposedly-unbiased umpire.
”Against the foregoing, we are compelled to call on INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who may not be privy to these shenanigans, to investigate the activities of this Unit which are capable of ruining the credibility of the electoral body, and act decisively and appropriately.
”The same Unit is said to have compromised INEC by colluding with some political parties in past elections as it reportedly supplied thugs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with accreditation tags for the 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, for instance.
“The fake election observers were subsequently arrested by security agents and the case is pending at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Awka, with no attempt made to prosecute the offenders,” ACN said.
The party also urged the presidency, security agencies, all Nigerians and members of the diplomatic community to take note of the gross partisanship of this Unit and the impact its nefarious activities may have on efforts to ensure that the Ondo State Governorship election is free, fair and credible.
It also demanded the immediate de-accreditation of both Women Arise and the RMG as Election Observers for the poll, in the interest of justice and fair play.
Meanwhile the president of Women Arise who is purportedly leading an independent election observer group in Ondo State has resorted to gutter language in her response to the ACN petition.
She said “It is unbecoming of a person of Alhaji Mohammed’s caliber to spew a patent lie that CODER was replaced by the Election Monitoring and Observation Unit of INEC with Women Arise.
In her words, she calls the ACN leaders twisted minds and blackmailers. “It is only a twisted mind that could manufacture such a low-quality propaganda to run a cheap blackmail.”
The would-be independent observer went further to state that “The ACN spokesman also betrays a medieval mind still shackled by feudalism and emirate disposition when he wrote “The partisanship of Women Arise as far as the Ondo election is concerned is glaring as the group is led by Dr. Joe-Okei Odumakin, wife of Mr. ‘Yinka Odumakin who has publicly declared his support for Governor Olusegun Mimiko in the forthcoming elections. Mr. Odumakin is also a known ally of Pastor Tunde Bakare who has also declared his support for the incumbent governor”.
“And this quote is from a supposed legal mind! It only shows that Alhaji Mohammed and whatever he represents still have a stone-age view of women as chattels who are to be used without independent thoughts and actions. And perhaps to be kept in purdah!
“The Women Arise is an independent organisation with a board made up of eminent Nigerians and thousands of members across the country.
“It is, therefore, puerile and crude to say that the opinion of the husband of its president dictates its mandate. Such view can only be held by those who carry low opinion of womenfolk and see them as cheer leaders who should have a few naira notes thrown at after they have been used for election campaigns.
“Integrity is alien to some folks!”
Why such venom by Mrs. Odumakin over a simple role as an independent election observer? Naturally, if your motive is clean, if any of the parties says she or he does not want you, that should put an end to it.
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
Independent investigation by Citizen Reporters however confirmed that
Mrs. Odumakin was only being clever by half. Many of her friends
confirmed that like any such organizations in Nigeria, she is actually
the alpha and omega and does whatever she likes. The boards are mere
decorations to fulfil CAC legal purposes. Our sources ask that we put an
open challenge to Mrs. Odumakin to present list of all her activities
and funding with complete 5 years statements of accounts of the
organization for third party scrutiny.
Our sources also confirmed that her husband is in fact both directly and indirectly actively involved in her Women Arise work and that he even suggested him to Mimiko for the current Ondo State INEC observer role.
Our sources also confirmed that her husband is in fact both directly and indirectly actively involved in her Women Arise work and that he even suggested him to Mimiko for the current Ondo State INEC observer role.
Our source promised to shock us with documentary evidence if required.
OUR POSITION
The Liberty Report is not interested in the details of Mrs.
Odumakin’s Women Arise for now. We however have enough
public knowledge information that is sufficient to stop her as
an independent election observer.
1. She confirmed that she is (or at least was) in romance with the
ACN, having been asked to join their protest in the past. This confirms
that she and the ACN people know one another very well
2. She is a closet sopporter of Mimiko who is a party to the October election
3. She is the wife of one of the most vocal supporters of Mimiko, Mr. Yinka Odumakin
4. Her response to ACN accusation was laden with so much venom that
made us conclude that there is something beyond the ordinary as far as
this issue of independent observation is concerned.
5. She is positively not independent and the people she has assembled to work with her cannot be independent.
These 5 points are sufficient for any reasonable human right
activist that genuinely wants to promote democracy to reverse herself.
LibertyReport
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