When the rag tag motley crew of protesters stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Abuja on Monday to call for a review of Taraba governorship poll, you know the circus has come to town. It is a comic show which started in Jalingo and has been making stops around the comedy circuit. Theirs is a laughable but potentially dangerous mission to truncate democracy in the state by extra judicial means and damned the consequences. All they want is an end to the people's mandate and a regime of total darkness at whatever cost. It's a push that is both annoying and hilarious.

As a recap, and to bring everyone up to speed, NNPP came second in the governorship election that was massively won by Governor Elect, Lt Col Agbu Kefas of the PDP. It was a peaceful poll that aligned with all known facts of Taraba political's history. Basically, Taraba is a PDP state true and though and the party expectedly did well in its traditional strongholds. NNPP, a new party that managed to l adroitly capture members of the near comatose main opposition APC (that had a bad case of political covid 19), simply scored well in 3 local governments known for opposition politics. No more, no less. The party didn't even pretend to campaign. Their appeal wasn't broad-based and they relied solely on primordial sentiments. Their candidate, a former Vice Chancellor of the state's university confined his campaigns to places he felt favored and believed in what some preachers were saying: that Taraba is about to be taken like a trophy. It was an emi lokan type of delusion.

The electorate however thought differently. On his own part, Kefas was rigorous and thorough in his well structured campaign. He appealed to all, especially the youth demography cutting across the faiths. Although he was the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) preferred candidate, Kefas reached out to the religious divide and wooed liberals. This, coupled with the fact that PDP is the ruling party in the state, it wasn't rocket science to predict the current outcome. And NNPP couldn't believe what happened.

Next for the NNPP was to cause confusion by making spurious cases for a review. Even at the collation center, the nefarious move was exhibited. They began by asking the collation center not to accept results not favorable to them. It was a tense period as all eyes focused on INEC officials to see what they would do or not. They eventually did what was right by announcing the winner Kefas to the dismay of the "kayan marmari" coalition.

Not done, a miffed and dazed NNPP went into overdrive. They began a move to review the results. This was actually backed by the Electoral Laws. There was a 7-day opening for that. But NNPP was interpreting it the wrong way with media propaganda that their man would be dashed the mandate. The state was inundated by all sorts of wicked voicenotes of leaders of the party saying they are plotting a take over. When that failed, they watched in horror as Kefas collected his certificate of return.

Everyone taught that was all since NNPP said it was rightly heading to court. To everyone's amusement, they reconvene in Abuja on Monday to protest and demand for the impossible, the unconstitutional and the bizarre. It was a tactics that's failed all along and is bound to fail again.

Emmanuel Bello, spokesman to Col Kefas, writes from Jalingo