UNICAL SUG ELECTION 2014: Accidental Discharge hits three,
Election Cancelled.
The University of calabar students’ Union Government
Election slated for August 6th, 2014 held as planned.
The election which was scheduled to start at 10:00am but did
not start as the Calabar University Electoral Commission (CUECO) was yet to receive
the electioneering materials such as ballot papers, etc.
Amidst the rains that greeted the event, Students showed
solidarity in support of their course mates, Department and Faculty Members as
it was seen in the large turnout of electorates to exercise their franchise.
The Election Started at about 12noon. Students were asked to
go to the notice board were the names of registered voters were pasted and confirm
their election registration number then come for accreditation, after which
they will be given the ballot paper then after voting, they proceed to where
the ballot boxes were kept to submit the ballot paper in the different offices
being contested for.
Although, some positions were unopposed as those who had
interest for such positions were not cleared to stand for the election due to
either lack of the required CGPA or Non-Compliance from the Department of the
Student, meanwhile some other positions such as office of the Director of
Sports which had five Aspirants all cleared to stand for the Election, Office
of the President which had four Aspirants out of Seven cleared to stand for
Election, also keenly contested for was the office of the Vice-President.
Investigation by MalaborWatch Shows that CUECO was
determined to deliver a very Transparent, Free and fair Election for the Union
as strategies to curb Election Malpractice and irregularities were already put
in place.
Election was very peaceful although some students complained
that they had registered but could not find their names on the list of
registered voters.
A special line was created to solve that issue as all those
who claimed to have registered were requested to bring proof of registration so
that it could be Verified and confirmed, then allowed to vote. Strategies to
make sure those students who had registered for the election were not disenfranchised
of their fundamental Students Right.
The University Security Team, members of the university Surveillance
Team, Man O’War and some Members of the Nigerian police Force were on ground to
Provide adequate security for the successful conduct of the election.
The election was not
devoid of some attempted Irregularities as some students were caught. Some of
them had voted and came back to vote again while others were caught trying to
put in more than one ballot paper for the office of the president.
At about 2:30pm, The Vice Chancellor of the University,
Prof. James Epoke Came around to see how the election was going, he was
accompanied by the dean of the faculty of law, Prof. Cyril Ndifon, The emeritus
SUG President, Comr. Imah, Ayi-Ekpenyong and a host of others. The Vice
Chancellor was happy with the peaceful conduct of the election and the peaceful
disposition of the students during the election. Soon, the Vice chancellor left
and the Voting process Continued in a peaceful manner.
The MC who was ordering the proceedings of the election had
earlier announced that election would soon end and at about 2:55, The MC announced
that he was instructed to announce that voting has ended meanwhile there were
still many students on the queue waiting to exercise their franchise. The
Security men were ordered to pick the ballot boxes and move towards the old
senate chambers, venue for the usual counting of votes in company of all the
agents of the different candidates.
Students who were about to be disenfranchised began to
protest and they started chanting, “We want to vote, we no go gree. We want to
vote, we no go gree.” The students began to follow the ballot box. They
immediately discovered that old senate chambers may not be too safe for
counting of the vote, they immediately diverted and began to head towards New
Art Auditorium, NAT, Main Camp. Students kept on following them. In front of
faculty of Social Science Block, The security men open fire in the air in order
to disperse the students. The students dispersed but still taking different
routes in pursuit of the ballot boxes. At this point, the students wanted to
know where the ballot boxes are been taken to, so as to avoid any irregularity.
Already, because of the gun shot, there was tension in school, people were seen
running helter skelter.
From an eye witness who was standing beside the victim, this
is what he had to say “the security man was holding the gun facing the ground
at this place, before there was accidental discharge and the bullet bounced on
the ground and hit the young man who was standing beside me, when I told them,
see blood, they thought it was a joke until I opened his shirt and people saw
the blood, then they believed and they tried to rush him to the hospital. It could
have been me.”
Soon, the SUG President, Comr. Bassey Eka arrived at the
scene, he addressed the crowd of students who were standing there, in his
words, “Great Nigerian students, an injury to one is an injury to all, we must
make sure we remain malabites & Malabresses of reasonable action even as we
make sure that we get to the root of this matter.
He requested that all malabites & Malabresses should
move down to open pav so that a unanimous decision can be taken on how to go
about the matter.
On getting to the Open pavilion, The SUG President
maintained that we cannot implore violence while seeking for justice, as at
now, we don’t know the health condition of our fellow students and so we cannot
be celebrating victory when the result shall be announced.
Therefore, we want the election nullified until we know the
health condition of our colleagues. Everyone was happy with the idea and the
election was nullified when the Vice chancellor came to settle the issue. He apologized
to the students for what happened that it wasn’t intentional and that it was
accidental discharge. The VC assured the students that the affected victims
shall be taken care of and that they will return in good health.
At about 6:00pm, The major victim of accident was brought to
malabor republic so that malabites & Malabresses will see him and know that
he is not dead. As the young man was taken to Hall 8 & 9, Malabresses were
seen thanking God for sparing his life and were happy with the way the SUG
President had handled and managed the situation.
Malabresses were also seen chanting “Shogolo for Second Term”.
On Speculations of who would have won the election,
Malaborwatch gathered that Ajang Emmanuel was leading for the position of
President while for the Position of Sports; Nsisong Brendan was not fairing bad.
Also for the office of Director of Information & Vice President, Hechime,
Chima Akpelu was leading with some good margin while Akpan, Inemesit was
leading with few Votes.
Unconfirmed sources have it that online registration will
commence immediately for those who were not able to register and election has
been fixed for Next week Friday being 15th August, 2014.
Malabites & Malabresses are law abiding citizens as we
are known for reasonable actions. Peace has return to the republic.
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