ESEP plots to postpone election

As I stepped out of the door, Alhaji Gohe handed to me his phone and asked me to read a text message that he just received from Senator Ali Hadari. The senator had been denied a return ticket by the ruling Everyone Should Eat Party [ESEP] because the Governor cornered the ticket for Tafki North […]

As I stepped out of the door, Alhaji Gohe handed to me his phone and asked me to read a text message that he just received from Senator Ali Hadari. The senator had been denied a return ticket by the ruling Everyone Should Eat Party [ESEP] because the Governor cornered the ticket for Tafki North for himself. The senator has therefore concluded plans to defect to our party. We were planning to receive him and his supporters during the rally we were to hold at Bulbuli. However, his text message unsettled us. He said ESEP leaders had perfected plans to postpone the election from next week because they have concluded that they will not win. They plan to use distribution of permanent voter’s cards and insecurity as a cover.
According to the senator, the Governor and ESEP leaders in Tafki State are putting pressure on the Resident Electoral Commissioner [REC] to deliberately cause delay in the distribution of PVCs so that he can file a report and say Tafki State is not ready for the election. They are also making arrangements with the Police Commissioner to engineer a few incidents so that they will add Tafki among the states with insecurity problems where election should not hold.
When we heard that we decided to immediately counter their plans. As it happened, a letter arrived saying the REC is about to hold a consultative meeting with party leaders and gubernatorial candidates. Maikaho told the campaign team to proceed to the venue of our first rally and to be dancing and singing before my arrival. Tsinin Kusa went with them to the rally while Alhaji Gohe, Maikaho and I took the chairman and secretary of our Stomach Infrastructure Party [SIP] to the REC’s office.
The meeting was already in progress when we arrived. ESEP’s governorship candidate Goshin Bauna was in the middle of his speech when we entered. When he saw us he paused and did not want to go on, but the REC urged him to continue. So he said, “As I was saying, the distribution of PVCs in this state is very poor, only 65%. For that matter, the areas where PVCs have not been distributed are my party’s strongholds so we will be affected if the election goes ahead next week…”
In the twinkle of an eye Maikahon Karo was on his feet. I was amazed because we had just been given our seats and we had not even sat down. Maikaho shouted, “You are a liar, Goshin Bauna! Which stronghold of your party has been deprived of PVCs? In your own local government of Tsamiya the collection rate is 90% but in Alhaji’s local government of Gebe it is only 50%. Yet we are ready to go ahead with the election but the coward that you are, you are asking for a delay…”
The REC was frantically calling Maikaho to order, telling him to sit down and allow Goshin Bauna to finish first but he refused. Maikaho shouted at the top of the voice, “This your plot to suspend the election will fail! Even you REC, why did you give us short notice to attend this meeting? We only got your letter as we were going out for campaign but you gave Goshin Bauna long notice! Your plan was for us not to come so that you will say you consulted party leaders and they had agreed to postpone the election! You are in cahoots with ESEP! You are…”
By then policemen had moved in to restrain Maikaho. After a struggle they got him to sit down. When the REC picked up his microphone and began to speak again his voice was trembling. He said, “Maikaho, what you said is most unfair. I myself received short notice from my headquarters to do this consultation. They said the Council of State said we should consult party leaders in our states…” Before he could complete the sentence Maikaho sprang to his feet again. “Well then, go and tell them that you have consulted us and we said the election must go ahead!” Again the policemen rushed to where Maikaho was sitting and they bundled him out of the room. He went out kicking and screaming.  
At that point the state police commissioner began to speak. He said he received security reports that gunmen were on the prowl in several local governments of Tafki State so it will be better to postpone the election until they are brought under control. We didn’t know that after the police bundled Maikahon Karo to the car park he sneaked back and was listening from under a window. When he heard what the police commissioner said he instantly peeped through the window and said, “That is a lie! Which gunmen? Those ones are cattle rustlers! Those ones have been there for a long time! Is it now that you are looking for a reason to postpone the election that you remember they are there…”
I saw policemen running helter skelter, some through the door and some through the window, trying to get at Maikaho and silence him before he continues to embarrass their boss. When Maikaho saw them coming he jumped from the window and ran towards a large mechanics’ workshop just outside the office where the meeting was taking place.  He was shouting, “They want to cancel the election! They want to cancel the election!”
The mechanics left the cars they were repairing and formed a circle around Maikaho. When the policemen saw that he was going to create a scene, they left him and came back to the hall. The “consultative meeting” ended abruptly. Goshin Bauna and his party chairman Sallama Maikudi stood up to go, saying there was no order in the meeting because some hoodlums had taken it over. At that point I stood up, pointed at Goshin Bauna and said, “Who are you calling a hoodlum? Is it Maikaho? Ok, I will tell him what you said.” Goshin Bauna began to tremble. “I didn’t say Maikaho is a hoodlum,” he pleaded. “I didn’t mean him. I was referring to some boys outside there who threw stones as we passed…”