Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (left) with the Abia State Governor, Mr Okezie Ikpeazu
By NewsBits
The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission for declaring the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Enyinnaya Abaribe, as the winner of the Abia South Senatorial election.
He said INEC should not have declared Abaribe winner. Ikpeazu, on Wednesday, disclosed this through the PDP collation agent Charles Esonu. He disclosed the affected units have 200,000 cumulative voters, more than the votes of all parties.
Ikpeazu marveled why Abaribe was declared winner in the election after the electoral body affirmed polls were not conducted in 108 polling units in Obingwa, Aba South and Abia North.
Ikpeazu alleged that more than 50,000 supporters of the PDP could not exercise their franchise due to the non-provision and late arrival of electoral materials in the district’s Local Government Areas.
“We would have been able to scrutinize. There were several mutilations on the result from Aba South LGA, they also cancelled many units in Aba South. The Returning Officer, Prof. Georgina Ugwuanyi, at the collation centre at Constitution Crescent primary school, Aba, declared the election inconclusive.
“This was due to a substantial number of polling units, totalling 108 which had issues requiring a rescheduled election,” he said. Esonu disclosed he told the Returning Officer not to declare any winner because of the margin of lead between the first and second candidates.
“Abaribe was leading with 6,000 votes. The returning officer agreed with party agents that nobody should be declared a winner because of the margin of lead. We were shocked Prof. Ugwuanyi later returned to the collation centre in the afternoon and declared a winner, citing orders from above,” Esonu added.
It will be recalled that the INEC, on Tuesday, declared Abaribe winner with 49,693 votes while Ikpeazu polled 28,422 votes. Abaribe is the current lawmaker representing the district.
