By The Liberty Report
Mrs. Joe Odumakin has long association with Tunde Bakare and other known vocal supporters of Segun Mimiko
Is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) an impartial
umpire? It does not seem so as recent information has confirmed that
INEC has appointed Odumakin, yes the same Mrs. Joe Odumakin, a closet
supporter of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as an independent election observer for
the October 20 election in Ondo State. A close family friend of Mrs.
Odumakin confirmed to citizen reporters that Mrs. Odumakin has been
quietly working to promote the second term ambition of governor Mimiko
and wonder if it makes sense to appoint her an independent observer.
Naturally, her observation and report would be tailored to suit her
preference.
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 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
