Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole weekend in Benin blamed rigging and snatching of ballot boxes during elections on the nature of the Nigerian electoral law, which he said, “is designed actually to assist rigging and to make those fighting against rigging difficult”

Comrade Oshiomhole who made this observation while hosting a coalition of student leaders from University of Benin, and College of Education, Ekiadolor as well as South-South Youth Forum in his campaign office, called for a sustained effort on the part of stakeholders to demystify godfatherism which he said, “gives rise to the snatching of ballot boxes, rigging and other electoral vices in the country”.

According to him, that is why a very clear and unanimous judgment of those very brilliant and courageous judges, the man whose certificate has been nullified and withdrawn still remains in government. Those are part of the iniquities inherent in the Nigerian electoral system.

“For their iniquities, we must tolerate and live with until men and women courageous and committed to our country assume power and we can re-write law, to reflect the true values of our people, then we would have a transparent democracy”.

“I am happy that in Edo State we have engaged the rascals and we have defeated them at the ballot, we have defeated them at the tribunal by the grace of God, we will defeat them at the Court of Appeal”.

“I am sure that in the next two months, the issue of who owns the land would be resolved and I know that anyday anytime, I can count on you and together, we will demonstrate what governance is all about.

“It remains for me, Comrades to assure you that the reason is so easy for miscreants in power to hire all sorts of people to do all sort of things are because of the level of greed and poverty in our society.

They never hire the son of the rich for some of those things. We are also committed that to fight poverty, we must create jobs and people must be paid well. That is the only way to fight poverty on a sustainable basis”.

Let me thank all of you who have come to our campaign office and for all that you have been doing even during the electioneering campaigns, the day of the elections, and while we were in the tribunal.

“At the electioneering campaign, when I visited UNIBEN for an invitation, it was clear that the students know who their man is and they know the opportunists visited the campuses only because they needed votes ad they needed support”.

“I re-call one particular meeting at UNIBEN where many candidates pleaded huge sums of money, I am not sure whether they redeemed it or not and the students said they didn't even want me to pledge anything and they said they were not selling their votes to the highest bidder. So the Senate President, you have not only courageous students but students who are intellectually clear and understand the issues and they are the symbols of our future.

On the purported criticism of the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal judgment that ruled in his favour, Comrade Oshiomhole said that when politicians are desperate, they will manufacture all sorts of things and all sorts of lies to cover up their iniquities.

They rig ballot boxes, they cannot rig the truth. So, I knew that when the man is drawing, they are trying to cling to anything. Historically, organized Labour and students have always fought side by side in all the major struggles. So, I am excited that on your own, and a lot of the students union leaders have since denounced and disclaimed the statements that was credited to them.

“Again, it shows that Abacha is gone but we have a lot of Abacha followers in Edo Government House; people who will organize fake one million man match yet, they will be talking of one million devil match because they have no men and women behind them. When somebody drew my attention that some students are protesting in Abuja , I looked at their faces; when you see students, you know them. When you see contractors, you also know them”.

Earlier, the students who were led to Oshiomhole’s campaign Organization by the NANS Senate President, Comrade Smart Edward and his UNIBEN counterpart and SUG President, Comrade Joseph Onojaeme in a statement said it was unfortunate that that some ignoble politicians in Edo State attempted to put Nigerian Students in the state at a collision course with the judiciary and members of the general public, especially the statements purported to have been made by Nigerian Students criticizing the judgment of the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal which declared Oshiomhole winner of the April 14th 2007 polls.

They said they have had exhaustive discussions with the leadership of higher institutions in Edo State and have come to the conclusions that some drowning politicians are determined to blackmail students in a bid to survive the current political storm in the state.

“NANS will not hesitate to move its secretariat to the government house in Benin if this scandalous act persists. It is on record that Nigerian Students in Edo State in particular and Nigeria in general has a long standing relationship with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the Nigerian Labour congress”.

“His election as the Governor of Edo State is the best thing that has happened to Nigerian Students in recent times. We commend the tribunal Judges for their courage and ability to justify the confidence reposed in them. The students are very happy with the judgment and we are most grateful to their Lordships, they stated”.