Cracks in Lagos AGN as Victor Osuagwu emerges winner POSTED ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19TH, 2013 Lucy Ezeliora / Lagos Saturday, June 15 will remain indelible in the history of the Lagos State Chapter of Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN), unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. It will go down as the day, the state chapter split into two following inconclusive elections. According to eye witnesses, supporters of both Victor Osuagwu and Don Pedro Agbani swore never to accept any result that didn’t favor their candidates. Although comic actor, Victor Osuagwu, emerged winner at the capacity filled Remi Tinubu Hall of the Surulere Local Government, Lagos, made up of veteran as well as young actors; supporters of Don Pedro Aganbi , insist their candidate won. According to results announced by the National Executive Committee of the actors’ guild, Victor Osuagwu won the election with 80 votes as against Aganbi’s 69 votes. Although, the election was disrupted by top Nollywood actor, Benedict Johnson and his gangs who attempted to attack the National president of AGN, Ibinabor Fiberesima, results were still announced. Trouble started when Osuagwu’s returning officer, insisted he would not continue counting if a copy of AGN’s constitution was not presented him by the national president. According to him, Mr. Don Pedro Aganbi, going by the constitution of the guild, wasn’t qualified to contest for the election since he has only spent three years in the industry. Audry Okujagu, Don Pedro Aganbi’s returning officer, said,“as at the time counting of the votes was disrupted by the demand of Osuagwu’s returning officer to have a copy of AGN’s constitution, Aganbi was already leading Osuagwu with many votes.” Consequently, Aganbi’s supporters insist the fight which enveloped the hall was instigated by the National President, Ibinabo Fiberesima and those supporting Osuagwu to ensure Aganbi didn’t emerge leader of the State Chapter. They pegged their position on the behavior of the AGN’s national president, Fiberesima, who went against protocol to take away the voters’ box. “She had no right to touch the ballot box. Only members of AGNEC could touch that box. She intentionally took the box and fled to an isolated area where she added 30 votes in favor of Mr. Osuagwu and ordered AGNEC to declare him winner,” a supporter of Aganbi said. Ironically, Benedict Johnson, an ardent supporter of Osuagwu, attacked Fiberesima which resulted in commotion as security and mobile Police men restrained him by firing tear gas to distract him and others. The fight continued between Johnson, some members and security men. Although Fiberesima who was at the time of filling this report was said to be receiving treatment at a private hospital in Lekki for injuries sustained during the fracas, insisted that the election was among the most free and fair in the history of the guild. “This is because, from the time of accreditation to declaration of manifesto, there was absolute calmness and concentration among members,” she said. She didn’t bother denying ferrying the box for safe-keeping “when it became obvious that tempers were becoming very high.” In an exclusive chat with Aganbi, after the election, he argued that if the president’s aim was actually to restore peace, she should have taken the ballot box to the national secretariat which was not far from the venue, “where she would have waited for everybody to gather before counting will continue and winner announced.” He went on, “as far as I am concerned, I’m the winner of the election. That day, I got calls from people to come for discussion with Victor and other members of the executive on the way forward.” He said, he couldn’t honour the invitation because he was at that time receiving treatment for injuries sustained during the confusion. Aganbi went on to say, he was surprised when the same people came up the next day to tell him that they had declared Victor winner. “Is that not daylight robbery and irresponsibility?” he asked. “Everybody saw when the votes were separated; I had votes numbering over 50 before they stopped counting at 45. Why did they stop counting the votes? If you were watchful you would have discovered that Victor did not have up to 30 votes there. You would have noticed that when they counted 45 votes I had about 50 votes left. Were Victor’s votes up to 80? They were not. His votes were below 30, that was why they disrupted the election because I was about to be declared winner. How come he defeated me? I was attacked that day by Victor’s thugs. They inflicted injuries on my head; I have been in the hospital since that day. We have also gone to Area C Police Station to make formal complain because of threats to life by Victor’s men. And all of a sudden, we started hearing that Victor has been declared winner, and I am asking under what process? Who was there when the votes were counted and winner announced? Victor was not there, I was not there, and so who witnessed the declaration of the results? “Another thing that shocked me was that they took the papers to somewhere and declared him a winner, shouldn’t the other party be there? Is it not the global standard; is this how elections are done? Are we not supposed to be role models and mirrors for the society? What legacy are they putting in place for future generations, what right do we have to criticize government and its politics? What right do we have to say that we are the pride of the industry? This is unfair and daylight robbery. I can assure you that we will take this thing to the highest places. I have spoken to the BOT and from Monday as a matter of urgency we shall begin to put structures in place to run the affairs of Lagos State chapter AGN. We will not allow thugs to take over Lagos state. On the way forward, Aganbi said: “We are going to exploit the constitution of AGN, because the constitution said that I should do a petition. We will exploit every option in AGN’s constitution, after which if not satisfied, we will go to the court of law, because what happened was robbery. It is a slap on equity, national justice and good conscience; we will not accept that and will fight with all legal means available to us. “You saw the amount of violence that took place there, the president was completely reduced to a puppet, she was harassed, disrespected and attacked. Is this what Victor Osuagwu is bringing to Lagos state AGN, where is the place for mentorship? We should begin to weep for the future of this industry, if what happened at that election day is allowed. Look at a guy who claims to be a star coming to disrupt an election,” he stated. Those loyal to Victor Osuagwu accuse Don Pedro and his supporters of lying against Fiberesima. According to them, the president did not take sides with any of the candidates from the beginning. This was why she insisted Pedro will not be disqualified despite demands for his disqualification by his opponents at the 11th hour. They denied she touched the ballot box, instead they said, she instructed members of NEC to leave the hall as people have resorted to violence, an incident that propelled them to avoid the secretariat too. An insider in the guild told Daily Independent, that votes were not secretly counted, as few of Pedro’s supporters were present when the winner was announced. Others who were voted for at the election were Nathaniel George who contested for the post of Chief Whip and Chidi Ejezie, Financial Secretary. Dandi Monso (Chairman), Sweetman Okujagu (secretary) served on the electoral committee.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:40:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015