ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has kicked against the declaration of Enyinnaya Abaribe as the winner of the Abia South senatorial election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had on Tuesday announced that the incumbent lawmaker won with 49,693 votes.
The candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Chinedu Onyeizu, secured 43,903 votes while Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, polled 28,422 votes.
Also, Prof. Georgina Ugwuanyi, the Returning Officer, announced that LP’s Emeka Nnamani won Aba South and North federal constituency with 35,502 votes.
Reacting, Governor Ikpeazu on Wednesday, stated that INEC should not have declared his rival in the All Progressive Grand Alliance, (APGA), the winner.
He wondered why a declaration was made after the commission confirmed polls were not conducted in 108 polling units in Obingwa, Aba South and Abia North.
The Governor, through the PDP collation agent Charles Esonu, said the affected units have 200,000 cumulative voters, more than the votes of all parties.
He claimed that over 50,000 supporters of the PDP could not vote due to the non-provision/late arrival of electoral materials in the district’s local government areas.
Esonu said: “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.
“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.
“I told her she should not 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.”