PDP wins all chairmanship positions in Abia council poll

• APC, APGA, LP, PPA reject result

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday won all the chairmanship positions in the local council election held in Abia State.The Chairman of Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC), retired Justice Igbozuruike Akomas announced that the PDP won all the 17 councils in the state.

Five political parties presented candidates for the election. The parties are PDP, All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party and Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA).

The other parties have however rejected the results, alleging irregularities in the conduct of the election. The State Secretary of APGA, Sunday Onukwubiri said, “what transpired yesterday was not an election hence the results are not acceptable.” He added that his party would soon go to court over the issue.

Also, the APC State Publicity Secretary, Godson Benedict said the results of the election and the victory of the PDP were predetermined.The party’s chairmanship candidate for Ukwa West council, Chinwendu Uruakpa wondered how ABSIEC declared result in an area where election did not hold. He said the ABSIEC office in the council was set on fire yesterday afternoon and all the voting materials got burnt.

A text message from Uruakpa to the reporter yesterday afternoon reads: “There was no election in Ukwa West. No electoral officer visited any polling unit. The fire incident which started around 12:00 p.m. destroyed most of the materials.”

Reacting to the allegation of a deliberate delay of electoral materials to strongholds of other political parties, Justice Akomas said: “I am not on the field to know what transpired. The opposition parties are fond of criticisms. If they are sure of their facts, let them go to court and seek the nullification of the election.

“The tribunal has already been set up. For me, I will not cancel this election. We printed enough materials and there was no shortage and we distributed them in good time to all the council areas.”