“For us, the obstruction is just way too much. Everywhere we turned there are two or three NPP trucks, pickup-trucks, either waiting for us or right behind us or would come soon after us. In fact, we were supposed to go to Nyakoi and Sutukonding now, because they have our campaign agenda, they know where we are going to and what time,” Essa revealed.
“So, the people of Nyakoi called us to say that well about three NPP pickups are there for surveillance, watching who is coming to us and who is not coming to us.”
“Those are petty intimidatory tactics because the people should be free to choose where they want to support and should not be worried that whether the government is watching as to who supports who; and in some of these places people value authority and they think, a lot of them would think that by coming to us, it would be seen as they are doing something wrong.”
“So, with the government being there watching, makes it more difficult for them to come out. So, this is also an interference with the democratic process and should not be allowed to happen. So, that is why now I would not announce where we would be and at what time.”
“We would make such adjustments that would enable us to operate without interference. That is the only way we can deal with this. These are dirty underhand tactics that they are playing. It is so uncalled for,” he said.
He pondered that he and his team have reported to the IEC about an incident that happened at Sotuma Sirreh. However, he said they did not report the issue of the attempted bribery because of the lack of evidence to substantiate the allegations. “Also, you cannot know who they are going to attempt to bribe. So, you cannot prepare to get the evidence, because these things happen at various places with random individuals.”
“Even though it is a policy, it is a policy to bribe. We have seen the pictures of certain NPP senior officials ostensibly bribing village elders to get them to support the NPP.”
“Of course, if you ask them, they would say that it is for a different purpose, but clearly at this time, if a state minister walks with a bag of money and offers it to locals, it cannot be anything other than a bribe,” he uttered.
He added that the milling machines that are being offered around is bribery and that the government should not and urged not to be allowed at this stage, in the middle of an election campaign, to be dishing out milling machines to locals. He believed that this cannot be part of the development plan.
“This cannot be part of a state activity and the IEC should try to put a stop to this. I have heard of the excessive sums of money that are being given to villagers to lure them to attend certain rallies. I was to go to Nyakoi and Sutukonding; they sent there, apparently leaders of the village told me, D150, 000 as enticement to get them to go to attend a rally.”
“So, people would leave, would abandon their villages to go and attend the president’s meetings because of these sources of inducements. Do I have the evidence? But people have complained about these things and the IEC should be everywhere really to investigate these things.”
“We have been to one particular place; we have only about a handful, tens of people; a scores of people. The reason for that is they went there before us and made sure that they corralled all the people away from there by enticing them with money.”
“So, these are dirty underhand tactics that they are playing. It is like a desperate situation to win an election at all costs. It is not nice at all,” he concluded.
