By Eze Nwamadi, Ogbonna Asadu and Ezema Igwenunu

The Enugu State Labour Party has owned up the reprehensible unleashing of the soldiers that terrorized the Enugu electorate during the just concluded governorship and state house of assembly elections in Enugu State held on March 18, 2023. The soldiers reportedly pulled from Kaduna allegedly brutalized, intimidated and suppressed voters believed to be PDP supporters. Many PDP stalwarts were  reportedly arrested across the state on phantom charges only to be released after the elections, having been disenfranchised.

In a statement dated April 5, 2023 signed by one McGinger Ibeneme, Director of Media and Strategy, Labour Party said it was responsible for the deployment of the soldiers across the state. Ibeneme, the spokesperson of the party, held that the soldiers helped the Enugu Labour Party to contain their suspected PDP thugs rumoured to have been prepared for the elections. This is an admission of the fact that Labour Party was responsible for the unconscionable roles  the military played in the elections. It had earlier been alleged that the same soldiers helped Labour Party to massively rig the elections across the state by way of abducting electoral officers and forcing them to rewrite results, especially at Isi-Uzo and Nsukka Local government councils.

Labour Party's statement comes at the heels of a motion of public importance unanimously passed by Enugu State House of Assembly on April 4, 2023, asking President Buhari and the National Assembly to cause investigation into the ignoble roles of the military in the elections; whereas, the roles of the military as provided for by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are well known, and that their actions in the elections are a  clear usurpation of the roles of the police, citing an extant case where the military is debarred from meddling in elections. The motion moved by Hon. Chinedu Nwamba, representing Nsukka East State Constituency, and co-sponsored by Hon Uche Ugwu, Hon. Innocent Ugwu, Hon. Paul Nnajiofor, Hon. Ezenta Ezeani, Hon. Chima Obieze, RT. Hon. Dr Iloabuchi Aniagu, Hon. Chinedu Okwu, Hon. Johnson Chukwuobasi, Hon. Jane ENEH, Hon. Barr. Ibenaku Onoh and Hon. Amaka Ugwueze, had in strong terms condemned  the ignoble and unseemly roles of the military in the governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state.

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Now that the Enugu Labour Party has owned responsibility for the criminal act of voter suppression, disenfranchisement, brutalization, intimidation, arrest, terrorization, and election results manipulation, using AK47-wielding soldiers brandishing all forms of military armaments as though they were headed for war, Mr President and NASS need not look elsewhere in their investigation. They may do well to look into the alleged roles of two former ministers in cahoots with  Nsukka Generals, serving and retired, in the procurement of the military for the illegal hatchet job, the harrowing experience of which the Enugu electorate have yet to recover.