APGA Rejects Abia Gov. Result, Urges Buhari To Probe Electoral Fraud In S/East
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday declared Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, winner of the governorship election in Abia having satisfied the requirements of the constitution.
The INEC returning officer in the state, Prof. Ozumba, while announcing the result in the early hours of Sunday, in Umuahia, the state capital, said Mr. Ikpeazu polled a total of 264,713 votes to beat his closest challenger, Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, who garnered 180, 882 votes.
In rejecting the outcome, the party’s National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, told journalists that INEC colluded with the PDP to rig the election in favour of Ikpeazu
He expressed shock that INEC ignored APGA’s earlier call for the outright cancellation of results from three Local Government Areas in the April 11 poll but instead reinstated the cancelled results.
Umeh, who contested and lost the Senatorial election in Anambra State on March 28, said, “The controversy that was generated by the returning officer in reinstating the election results he had cancelled in Obingwa, Osisioma and Isialangwa North necessitated APGA’s earlier call for the cancelation of the “ out of the reality figures from the affected councils”.
He stressed that INEC ought to have sustained the cancellation of the results from the three councils as it did in Imo State in 2011.
Umeh alleged that “even the re- run was held under incoherent preparations as up till Friday night, details of polling units remained speculative”.
He continued, “APGA rejects the result of the poll as announced not because we cannot lose elections. We can accept losing an election through a credible process. We won the election clearly but our mandate was stolen.
“Accordingly, we will not resort to self-help; we will challenge the result at the tribunal.
“APGA will firmly stand by Otti until he reclaims his stolen mandate”.
Umeh also seized the opportunity to call on the President–elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to probe what he called “electoral fraud” in the South-East after his inauguration because “while other parts of the country are celebrating democracy, INEC used the zone for an experiment”.
In his reaction, Otti thanked Abians for “their massive support” for him, and appealed to them to remain calm and prayerful as he prepares to head for the tribunal.
He said, “Election has come and gone but the battle has just started. Evil cannot prevail over good but if it seems to prevail, it is only for a while.
“Weeping can only endure for a night, joy comes in the morning. We will not resort to brigandage because two wrongs cannot make a right”.
The APGA candidate alleged that voters were intimidated and scared from the polling units by coffins paraded in Aba by suspected PDP sympathisers on the eve of the election.
He also alleged that the rerun was fraudulently cancelled in Umunneochi after it had been listed by INEC.
The APC candidate, Nyerere Anyim and his Progressive Peoples Alliance counterpart, Chikwe Udensi, came a distant third and fourth with 10,244 and 4,381 votes respectively.
Meanwhile, outgoing Governor Theodore Orji has welcomed the announcement of PDP as winner of the election even as he denied that Ikpeazu was his stooge.
“I can’t manipulate a person who has a Ph.D. He has been in government for long and the era of manipulation is gone. He is intelligent enough to reject what he does not like”, he added.
He attributed Ikpeazu’s victory to people’s quest for power rotation.
Gov. Orji, therefore, called on those who lost to close ranks with the winner in the overall interest of the state.
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