Alliance Of Ogbaru Indegenous Communities Condemns Attempt To Undermine Ogbaru Elections
The Alliance of Ogbaru Indigenous Communities, AOIC, has roundly condemned what it described as the brazen attempt by a well-known party thug and arsonist of Anambra Sate in undermining and subverting the electoral wishes of Umu Ogbahu.
The President of the group, Arch Anayo Akue, in a statement said the major aim of their group was to promote peaceful co-existence among Ogbahu people.
He said it maintained that it is the greatest political travesty of the decade for Dr Innocent Ezekude to be calling for the release of Ogbaru House of Representatives election result where there are cases of results that were rewritten in the wee hours of the night; senseless and unconscionable thumb printing of ballot papers resulting to over voting; and arson in Akili Ozizor, intimidation of INEC staff in Iyiowa and INEC not being able to send materials to about 46 polling units, which also resulted in election not holding in a number of polling units and wards.
He said, “It was these factors which ordinarily infringe on INEC rules of engagement that rightly necessitated a rerun in certain polling units and wards and further scrutiny of the returned figures which Labour Party, led by their Capone from Nsugbe, rewrote. This has nothing to do with Governor Soludo who was busy casting his vote at his Isuofia polling booth”, said Akue.
According to the leader of the group, “Though electoral materials arrived late, voting commenced rather peacefully until some band of hoodlums attacked INEC officials at “Ote Ofe” in Akili Ozizor and burnt their materials.
“Apart from that, results that came in from Ogbaru Constituency 2 showed that Comrade Arinzechukwu Awogu (the APGA candidate for the House of Representatives) won there. Sensing that they were heading for a crushing defeat, Labour Party supporters in Constituency 1 and Iyiowa, without waiting to be captured by the BVAS machine, frenziedly hijacked ballot papers on which they indiscriminately thumb printed, resulting in over voting. At other locations which they suspected to be APGA strong hold, they threatened and scared away INEC officials,
“Inspite of intimidation and coercion, Comrade Awogu of APGA still won Hon. Afam Ogene with a margin of 2891 votes.
Given the pockets of recorded incidents that fouled the fairness of the election, including election not holding in about 46 polling units, the Electoral team on ground assured all the parties that a rerun is inevitable. But under the cover of the night between Sunday 26th and Monday 27th February, the Capone from Nsugbe and his gang swooped down on Ogbaru local government office where collation was ongoing. That was when the falsification, tipexing and transposition of Awogu’s win took place.
“The next thing Ndi Ogbahu heard was that instead of preparing for a re-run as was earlier mooted by the electoral officer, we heard they were proceeding to Awka to announce the result.” Akue said that those that were privy to the earlier arrangement were shocked and immediately suspicious at the sudden change in plan.
“Inspite of Ogbaru APGA leadership’s enquiry for explanation as to what must have precipitated the sudden change in plan, the Electoral Officer and his team adamantly proceeded to Awka. But unnfortunately for them, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, after studying and appreciating the anomalies that dogged the process, refused to accept the result and opted for rerun and a closer inspection of the results that were mutilated.
“It is therefore preposterous for one Dr. Innocent Ezekude and his so called league of Ogbaru professionals who were not on ground to have made such spurious insinuations about what they know through third party sources.”
Arch Anayo Akue finally called on INEC to quickly arrange a re-run and further scrutinize the earlier results that have been tampered with to enable INEC bring conclusion to the Ogbaru House of Representatives election.
0
0
