Nigeria Content Online

The National Chairman of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP),
Ogbonnaya Onu has said that the party would study the flaws and irregularities
that characterised the conduct of Tuesday’s gubernatorial and state Houses of
Assembly elections before making its stand on the election public. Mr Onu who
made this assertion in his Eze Adu country home in Uburu, Ohaozara Local
Government Area of Ebonyi State Wednesday, decried the level of intimidation of
opposition parties in Ebonyi State.

“It is left for the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) to put things right where they were done wrong, because the law permits
the commission to cancel elections in areas where there are evidences of
malpractice.” He said.

Speaking on the conduct of the election generally, the ANPP
Chairman said, “It is very clear that in some parts of the country, there was
very reasonable movement away from what it used to be in the past, but in the
Southeast; there are records of vehicles and houses of members and supporters
of opposition parties burnt in order to intimidate them.” He said there was
“Monetary inducement, intimidation and indiscriminate criminal use of ballot
papers by agents and proxies of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to
stuff ballot boxes. In most cases, ballot boxes were highjacked while voting
was ongoing and brought back later, after votes meant for opposition parties
might have been removed and already thumb-printed ones stuffed inside before it
is restored to the helpless INEC ad-hoc staff.”

Electoral offences

The ANPP governorship candidate in the state, Julius Ali Ucha,
bemoaned the outcome of the upturned National Assembly election results in the
state. “The National Assembly election result as it affected Ebonyi State was a
sham and its effect on ANPP supporters who voted massively for the party led to
their scanty participation in the presidential poll. Imagine where records of
the outcome of the NASS election results were upturned and entered in Form EC8B
meant for results summary instead of EC8A meant for results sheets,” Mr Ucha
stated.

Recounting series of reports of manhandling and intimidation of
ANPP supporters, the opposition party’s gubernatorial candidate alleged that
“at Umuogudu Akpu Ngbo in Ngbo Council Area, six ANPP agents deployed to
different polling booths were stripped naked by soldiers but were rescued by
police team from zone six.

“At Ezzaagu ward II Ishielu, that is the stronghold of ANPP
where we have 16 polling units, electoral materials were supplied without voter
register until 5pm when voters had waited and dispersed. Is that a conspiracy
with the ad-hoc staff of INEC and the government of the day?” Mr Ucha pondered.

Reacting to Mr Ucha’s allegation, Nwoba Pius, the Supervisory
Presiding Officer (SPO) said that the voters’ registers were initially omitted
in the electoral material supplied to the Ezzagu Ward II but were made
available later excluding the three polling units at Agba Ugama Central School
in Ezzagu in Ezza North Local Government Area of the state.