Declare Otti Abia’s elected gov, APGA writes INEC

Following the cancellation of election results in three local government areas during the April 11 gov­ernorship race in Abia State, the All progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), has requested that the In­dependent National Electoral Com­mission (INEC) should declare the party’s standard-bearer, Dr. Alex Otti, the winner of the state guber­natorial election, having polled the highest number of votes cast from other local governments, whose re­sults were not cancelled.

The party also charged INEC to be consistent in its standard stressing that once an election result is pronounced, it has no further power to review same adding that at that point, the powers will subsequently lie with the court and tribunal.
In a letter entitled: “Request for the Confirmation of Cancellation of the Results of Three Local Governments as Announced by The INEC Return­ing Officer and Declaration of Dr. Alex Otti, as the duly Elected Gov­ernor of Abia State,” and signed by­Engr. Uchenna Okogbuo, APGA’s na­tional vice chairman, South-East, the party affirmed that the cancellation by Returning Officer, Prof. Ozumba, is effective in law and the results from the three LGs stand rejected.
The letter says: “The effect is that INEC can neither collate nor resched­ule another election in the three LGs whose results had been cancelled.”
The party also noted that the PDP in the state mobilised thugs and secu­rity operatives to chase away eligible voters from participating in the elec­tion in various parts of the state partic­ularly in Obingwa, Isiala-Ngwa North and Osisioma, the three troubled LGs and prevailed to ensure that voting did not take place there.
“The agents of PDP carted away ballot boxes to unknown locations and wrote the falsified results for the election results for the three LGs. We are sure that this fact can easily be verified by simple review of the card readers deployed for the election, which data is available to the commis­sion. It is our contention that the com­mission is fully aware that the results generated from these areas are not a reflection of any actual voting and it was this fact that informed the cancel­lation.”expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
The party however alleged that due to intense pressure and overbearing influence exerted by the PDP on Prof. Ozumba, the returning officer for 2015 Abia governorship election and Mrs. Selina Oko, the INEC Abia resi­dent electoral officer, the cancellation of election results in the three LGs was reversed by the returning officer.
“You may recall that in our letter dated 2^nd April, 2015, we had com­plained of massive rigging and elec­toral malpractices in the same local governments at the election held in March 28, 2015 elections. Unfortu­nately, the same pattern of rigging was repeated, only that this time it was conducted in an obscene and bra­zen manner.
“It is worthy to note that after the cancellation on April 12, the Abia State governor Chief T. A Orji, ad­dressed his supporters and assured them that he would reverse the can­cellation. The PDP bigwigs allegedly took the resident electoral officer and the said state returning officer for a private meeting without any other party in attendance. These acts ac­cording to the party amount to, not just undue influence but a naked dis­play of power and impunity. We be­lieve that the foregoing developments put serious doubts on the integrity of the process.”