On Briyai’s Governorship Ambition

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16 August 2019 
 
On August 5, 2019 the immediate past Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for Cross River State, Dr. Frankland Briyai, made public his desire to contest in the upcoming governorship election in November this year in Bayelsa State.
 
Quite shockingly, for the first time that Briyai made this declaration publicly, he chose the premises of INEC, an organization that he served, and knows too well that it should be apolitical in all ramifications.
 
For someone who should understand the sacredness of the ground he stood on as far as political neutrality is concerned, the development raises a lot of questions, just as his attitude and activities since he assumed office as REC in the state until his controversial exit from the Commission.
 
While it is the right of every Nigerian to run for any elective office, it would not be farfetched to think that this particular situation demands scrutiny. For someone who came to Cross River as REC with practically nothing, declaring to run for a governorship election in a state such as Bayelsa, barely after controversially stepping out of office, just makes one wonder. We all know how capital intensive running a governorship election in Nigeria is, hence the attention this case demands.
 
I call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to look into this matter, and investigate the activities of the former REC, with a view to know whether he corruptly enriched himself financially to the extent of having the confidence to desire to contest the governorship given the huge financial implication of running for such office.
 
Briyai is a man whose nefarious activities as REC in the state is well-known, receiving huge bribes from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government in the state to the detriment of other political parties. 
The call by the National Chairman of PDP for an investigation of Dr Briyai is a trick to protect/cover up the former REC from persecution. His claim is fake and misleading. Let the APC be wise to avoid Dr Briyai.
 
Now he is telling the world that his people are putting pressure on him to run, hence his declaration of intention to pursue his ambition on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
 
His announcement to run on the platform of the APC is just a cover to hide his atrocious activities with the PDP, and to hide the ill-gotten wealth he made as REC in Cross River State.
This is the same man that excluded APC candidates from the last general elections in the state, in his bid to carry out the hatchet job for his paymasters in PDP.
Apparently, he was well paid for his troubles!
How can a man who came to head INEC in the state refuse staffs who were eminently qualified to conduct the elections, but rather used junior staff over their seniors to perpetuate criminality in the name of elections?
Briyai destroyed Cross River State because of his seeming insatiable love for money. How can Briyai as REC announce/declare results where a voting population of a Federal Constituency of Obubra/Etung with over a hundred and fifty thousand voters, declared a PDP member who scored less than 9,000 votes a winner!! When Elections did not hold in Etung LGA at all. What a corrupt public officer he was… 
Briyai on the eve of the February 2019 announced the exclusion of All APC candidates Cross River holding on to a Court Order, but yet went ahead to still disregard/disrespected the same Court Order by declaring an APC member for Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency winner of the Election. It goes to show how criminaly-minded that he (Briyai was playing a PDP script in frustrating the APC) was a paid agent in Cross River State. 
 
I would like to ask Briyai, were his people where all this while that they did not come out to put pressure on him to represent them? Did they just realize his existence recently? 
 
I also call on the APC to reject Briyai, because he is like a cancer that would come to infect, and destroy the party, if he is given the opportunity to have his way. He is planted not only to destroy the APC, he has no plans to run any election. His a bug….. planted to cause crisis for APC. 
Briyai is a bad product that cannot be marketed. The APC should not give such a person its ticket.
He is not a member of APC. Never in the history of Nigeria has a REC used the facility of INEC to declare his or her political ambitions, so the APC should not compromise its integrity or allow  itself to associate with such an obviously dubious character.
Goddie Akpama
Is an APC chieftain in Cross River. He writes from Calabar