Abia Elders, Group Decry Declaration Of Guber Election Inconclusive

PROMINENT leaders of Abia State, including former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, have vowed to resist any move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to rerun the April 11 governorship election, which they claimed was free, fair and credible and won by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Dr. Victor Ikpeazu.

Speaking under the aegis of the Ukwa Ngwa Elders and Ukwa Ngwa Professionals, the leaders also decried the intransigence of the INEC officials in attempting to manipulate the outcome of the election in favour of a particular candidate.

Another socio-cultural organisation in the state, Umunna Abia, urged INEC to immediately declare Ikpeazu the winner of the election, having scored 25 per cent of the total votes cast in two-third of the local government areas of the state.

The group faulted INEC for declaring the election inconclusive when the same election has clearly produced a winner.

In a media parley in Lagos yesterday, Wabara questioned how a set of officials can conduct elections into two offices in one location, under the same circumstances and declare the result of one as fair and valid, and another inconclusive.

He called on the INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, to quickly intervene and save the state from a crisis that might damage the hard earned reputation of the electoral umpire. He alleged that both the Abia State Returning Officer, Prof. V. C. Ozumba and Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Selina Okoh, have personal interests in the election and should not have been entrusted with adjudicating on a matter of personal interest to them for the sake of upholding the principles of natural justice.

Meanwhile, a group of observers that monitored the governorship election in the state has called for the total cancellation of the results in some local government, claiming the electoral fraud in those local councils necessitated their call.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos, on Friday, the observers through their spokesman, Mr. David Anyaele of Centre for Citizens With Disabilities (CCD), said the group organised the briefing to voice its displeasure over series of irregularities and abuse of electoral process it witnessed.

The observation team, comprising Justice Development Peace and Commission (JDPC), Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), Society for Economic Rights and Social Justice (SERSJ) and Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation (HRJPF), listed the local councils that they want total cancellation to include Isiala-Ngwa North, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo and Obingwa because the results released were highly questionable due to the level of voter apathy in the gubernatorial election.

They equally pleaded that ahead of the re-run, adequate deployment of security personnel should be ensured in all the affected areas.