Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, has said his 'rig and die' comment was not a threat to voters but a threat to riggers who falsify election figures and results.
Omo-Agege made the clarification in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Strategy and Communication, Mr Godwin Anaughe.
The former lawmaker insisted he is only warning election riggers of the consequences of their action.
"Those who cart and run away with electoral materials. It is a patriotic warning to ballot thieves to stay away. It is a total rejection of electoral robbery and manipulation.
"It is a declaration that the criminal enterprise of rigging must be exterminated so that democracy will live. It is lawful. It is constitutional.
"It is consistent with the spirit of section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution which says Nigeria shall not be governed by anyone who takes power except in accordance with the Constitution."
He explained that, "To rig an election is treason. It is a coup against the people. It is political robbery. 'RIG AND DIE' simply entails that every rigging machinery will be defeated and crushed by popular resistance."
He insisted that, "The era of writing results in Government House must end. The era of fake security personnel, fake INEC officials, vote buying and BVAS bypass must end. The plot to steal the people's mandate will die at the polling unit where the people will stand to defend their votes."
Sen. Omo-Agege also stated that the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, Sen. Ede Dafinone and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC cannot win a free and fair election.
He alleged that "Oborevwori has wasted over 5 trillion naira with nothing commensurate to show.
"Dafinone has no grassroots support and no legislative record to campaign with. Their only hope is to write results. That is why a call to defend votes sounds like a death sentence to them. A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
"This language is not new. In April 2014, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then APC National Leader, warned that it would be "rig and roast" for riggers in Ekiti and Osun.
'In February 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that ballot box snatchers should be shot at sight, that they would pay with their lives and ordered security agencies to deal ruthlessly with them. The Federal Executive Council backed him. Patriots hailed both statements as defence of democracy.
"If Tinubu's "rig and roast" was patriotic and Buhari's shoot-at-sight order was official policy, how does Omo-Agege's "rig and die" suddenly become anarchy? This is hypocrisy and selective amnesia.
"On October 12, 2013, during the Delta Central bye-election to replace Senator Pius Ewherido of blessed memory, Dafinone himself, as a DPP candidate, screamed that 'There was no voting.' He accused INEC of withholding result sheets and called the poll a sham. Then, he knew rigging was evil. Today, because his camp hopes to benefit from it, he wants Deltans to embrace rigging. We will not.
"They now blackmail Omo-Agege with the tired mace story out of ignorance and mischief. Let us put the facts on record. Omo-Agege's presence on the floor of the Senate that day was in defence of democracy and against legislative tyranny. He had secured a valid judgment of the Federal High Court nullifying his illegal suspension by a high-handed Senate leadership. The court declared the suspension unconstitutional, unlawful and illegal. He did not go to steal a mace and did not steal a mace. He went to resume his seat as a duly elected Senator.
"It was defence of the Constitution, defence of the judiciary, and defence of legislative independence. The courts afterwards completely exonerated him. That is why Deltans overwhelmingly returned him, and his colleagues elected him Deputy President of the Senate - the highest office ever held by any Deltan.
"Just as his action on the Senate floor was in defence of democracy and against tyranny, so also is RIG AND DIE in defence of democracy against ballot theft at the polling unit. Both defend Section 1(2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
"Let us be clear: Senator Ovie Omo-Agege did not threaten voters. He did not threaten INEC or the police. He warned the criminal enterprise that thinks it can intimidate voters, buy votes, bring in thugs dressed in police uniform, and write results. That enterprise will not survive in Delta in 2027. This you can take to the bank.
"Omo-Agege has earned the right to be angry. In 2023, he won the Delta Governorship election on lawful ballots. Deltans wanted to end eight disastrous years of Okowa's misrule. Okowa and his political stooge, Sheriff Oborevwori, working with compromised APC bigwigs, rigged him out with state funds and fake results in Delta North Senatorial District, especially in Ika North, Ika South, Oshimili North and Oshimili South. As a law-abiding leader, he went to court. The system protected the riggers.
'Rig and die' comment not threat to voters but to riggers - Omo-Agege clarifies