Political strategist and member of the Delta State APC Campaign Council, Kenny Okolugbo, has condemned remarks attributed to former Deputy Senate President Senator Ovie Omo-Agege on election rigging, warning that such statements could incite voters to take the law into their own hands.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Tuesday, Okolugbo described the statement as unfortunate, insisting that electoral offences should be handled by law enforcement agents rather than through violence.
“I think the statement made by the former Deputy Senior President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, was quite unfortunate. Nobody wants to be rigged in any election. Nobody wants to be rigged in any election.
“But we know rigging is a crime. Rigging is an offence. But when you catch riggers, what you are supposed to do is hand them over to the law enforcement agents.
“When you say rig and die, what you are doing is that you are inciting the electorates to take the laws into their hands. And when you incite the electorates, you can’t tell those who you can control, who you cannot control.”
The political strategist warned that such remarks could embolden supporters to resort to violence, particularly when they perceive electoral irregularities.
“Most of us that are politicians, we know how difficult it is for our people, for us to control some of the people who are loyal to us.
“Some of them are very overzealous. And so when they hear their leader make such statements, it emboldens them. And you might not tell, it could just be one little disagreement.
“It might not be necessary that the person that was in that polling unit was actually rigged. And the next thing you see, the person is lynched to death. And any right-thinking politician would say, look, we don’t want rigging, but such statements should not be welcomed.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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