Mass protest seems to be looming in Abia State over
the outcome of the governorship election in which the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) returned the state Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, as
winner with the main opposition parties vehemently kicking against the poll
result.
Governorship candidate of the All Progressives
Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Alex Otti, dropped the hint at a joint press
conference held with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr.
Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, in Umuahia during which they rejected the poll result.
Otti, who read a joint statement by the main
opposition candidates, warned that the peaceful disposition of opposition
supporters should not be taken for granted this time around just because APGA
did not take to the streets in 2015 when its “mandate was stolen.”
According to him, “We are peace-loving people but
we don’t believe that anybody will come here and tamper with the wishes of the
people.”
The aggrieved governorship candidates insisted that
they would not accept Ikpeazu’s victory as announced by INEC, saying it was a
product of "fraud and robbery.
"We would like to inform you that all the
results were not only fraudulent but did not represent the will of the people
of Abia State," Otti said while reading a statement jointly signed by his
APC counterpart.
He further said: "The results were highly
tampered with to favour the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
"We therefore reject in its totality the
results of the 2019 governorship election announced by INEC and demand its
cancellation," alleging that INEC connived with security agencies to
change the results and give victory to the incumbent governor.
They called for the cancellation of the 2019
governorship poll in the state within 24 hours and organise a rescheduled poll
"whenever INEC is ready to organise transparent election."
The APGA governorship standard bearer said: “INEC
(had) deceived us into believing that any result that did not agree with the
card reader recorded will attract zero value,” adding that the electoral body
failed to keep faith with its own guidelines for the governorship poll.
He cited Obingwa and Ugwunagbo Local Government
Areas where he alleged that card readers were not used, but only for INEC to
record 78,803 and 22,084 votes respectively for the candidate of the PDP, Ikpeazu.
Otti also faulted INEC for reappointing Prof
Ozurumba as the returning officer for the 2019 state governorship poll, adding
that he was in that capacity that he robbed him of his mandate in 2015.
In his remarks, Ogah alleged that agents of
opposition parties were chased out of the collation centres to enable the PDP
write the results the way they desired.
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