'Rig and die' remark not risk to voters however to riggers – Omo-Agege clarifies

He defined that, “To rig an election is treason. It is a coup against the people. It is political robbery. ‘RIG AND DIE’ simply entails that every rigging machinery will be defeated and crushed by popular resistance.”

He insisted that, “The era of writing results in Government House must end. The era of fake security personnel, fake INEC officials, vote buying and BVAS bypass must end. The plot to steal the people’s mandate will die at the polling unit where the people will stand to defend their votes.”

“Dafinone has no grassroots support and no legislative record to campaign with. Their only hope is to write results. That is why a call to defend votes sounds like a death sentence to them. A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

“This language isn’t new. In April 2014, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then APC National Leader, warned that it might be “rig and roast” for riggers in Ekiti and Osun.

‘In February 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that poll field snatchers ought to be shot at sight, that they might pay with their lives and ordered safety companies to deal ruthlessly with them. The Federal Executive Council backed him. Patriots hailed each statements as defence of democracy.

“If Tinubu’s “rig and roast” was patriotic and Buhari’s shoot-at-sight order was official policy, how does Omo-Agege’s “rig and die” suddenly become anarchy? This is hypocrisy and selective amnesia.

“On October 12, 2013, throughout the Delta Central bye-election to interchange Senator Pius Ewherido of blessed reminiscence, Dafinone himself, as a DPP candidate, screamed that ‘There was no voting.’ He accused INEC of withholding outcome sheets and known as the ballot a sham. Then, he knew rigging was evil. Today, as a result of his camp hopes to learn from it, he needs Deltans to embrace rigging. We is not going to.

“They now blackmail Omo-Agege with the tired mace story out of ignorance and mischief. Let us put the facts on record. Omo-Agege’s presence on the floor of the Senate that day was in defence of democracy and against legislative tyranny. He had secured a valid judgment of the Federal High Court nullifying his illegal suspension by a high-handed Senate leadership. The court declared the suspension unconstitutional, unlawful and illegal. He did not go to steal a mace and did not steal a mace. He went to resume his seat as a duly elected Senator.

“It was defence of the Constitution, defence of the judiciary, and defence of legislative independence. The courts afterwards utterly exonerated him. That is why Deltans overwhelmingly returned him, and his colleagues elected him Deputy President of the Senate – the best workplace ever held by any Deltan.

“Just as his action on the Senate floor was in defence of democracy and against tyranny, so also is RIG AND DIE in defence of democracy against ballot theft at the polling unit. Both defend Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

“Let us be clear: Senator Ovie Omo-Agege didn’t threaten voters. He didn’t threaten INEC or the police. He warned the prison enterprise that thinks it could intimidate voters, purchase votes, usher in thugs wearing police uniform, and write outcomes. That enterprise is not going to survive in Delta in 2027. This you may take to the financial institution.

“Omo-Agege has earned the proper to be indignant. In 2023, he received the Delta Governorship election on lawful ballots. Deltans wished to finish eight disastrous years of Okowa’s misrule. Okowa and his political stooge, Sheriff Oborevwori, working with compromised APC bigwigs, rigged him out with state funds and faux ends in Delta North Senatorial District, particularly in Ika North, Ika South, Oshimili North and Oshimili South. As a law-abiding chief, he went to court docket. The system protected the riggers.