Abia Guber: Jega Should Do The Needful
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has been urged to wade into the lingering issues that characterised Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, made the appeal on Tuesday in Umuahia, while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the election.
He urged Jega to initiate an administrative action to uphold the cancellation of the elections in three local government areas of the state as announced by the Returning Officer, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba.
Ozumba announced the cancellation of the elections in Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Areas during the collation of results on Sunday.
He cited the reported cases of violence in the affected areas and reports by the international observers as his reasons for the cancellation.
Ozumba, however, reversed the cancellation shortly after Gov. Theodore Orji accompanied by chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, stormed the collation centre, where he held consultations with the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Selina Oko, and Ozumba in the REC’s office.
Umeh said that the reversal was unacceptable to APGA, adding that the cancellation should be sustained, given that the election had not been concluded rather than refer them to the tribunal.
He said that the governor’s visit to the collation centre brought undue influence on the returning officer, forcing him to recant by annulling the cancellation.
“We believe their visit truncated the process,’’ he said, adding that the development ‘’introduced an unfortunate twist and fiasco to Abia state politics.”
Umeh described the visit as ‘’an invasion’’ and an electoral offence, adding that those involved, including PDP National Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the Minister of State of Defence, Rtd. Col. Austin Akobundu, amongst other, should be prosecuted.
He said that the party no longer had confidence in the officials of INEC in Abia to conduct credible and fair supplementary election in the state and requested that new officials be deployed from outside the state for the exercise.
He urged INEC ‘’to do what is right and needful’’ to ensure that the will of the people for change in Abia, ‘’overwhelmingly expressed through the ballot, was not subverted.
In his remarks, the party’s governorship candidate, Dr Alex Otti, restated the call for the cancellation of the elections in the three local government areas.
Otti said that elections did not take place in those areas and that electoral materials, including card readers were recovered in the bush in Osisioma by security operatives on election duty in the area.
He also said that there was no election in Obingwa Local Government Area, where the Transition Committee Chairman, Prince Obinna Nwabiarije, was arrested and detained for allegedly being in possession of voting materials and result sheets.
‘’PDP should have been smarter than to think that any local government could return close to 90% registered voters as they did in Obingwa and Osisioma,’’ he said.
“At this time that we want to change society, some people are resorting to savagery; Abia people have rejected PDP and I’m ashamed that even the governor and all those we call our elders are supporting this criminal act,” he said.
He however appealed to the people to be calm and not to engage in any acts of violence that could lead to loss of life because of the election.