APC Says Anambra Guber Results Not Acceptable Without Voting In All LGs

Posted by African Examiner Anambra Election, Ayo Balogun, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Saturday, November 16th, 2013

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned that it will not accept the results of Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State if voting does not take place in all local governments, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South as well as Akwa South.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Party (APC)

In a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its apparently-contrived logistic nightmare that had left thousands of voters unable to exercise their franchise, and demanded the immediate removal of the incompetent and conniving Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu.

APC said it was totally astonished to learn that INEC had confirmed that materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, had been hijacked, without saying who hijacked the ballot papers and why, and without explaining why the materials meant for APGA and PDP strongholds were not hijacked.

The party said equally astonishing was the fact that the voter’s registers for Idemili South, the direct Local Government of the APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite the assurances by INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega.

”Before the election, political parties were given voter’s registers that largely contained the names of most voters. However, about four days to the election, Prof Jega said at an interactive stakeholder’s forum that there were problems with the registers, which would be rectified before the election.

”However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation,” it said.

APC also complained about the fact that the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Prof. Onukogu, was very partial and unprofessional when he conducted the 2011 election.

”In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial. During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight. After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies.

”We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election,” the party said.