The opposition party wants the National
Assembly to wade in.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, said on
Thursday that it was in doubt if the
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, had the ability to organize a free and
fair governorship election in Anambra State,
come November 16, going by recent
developments.
According to a statement by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed,
the party alleged that the top officials whom
the electoral body planned to send to
oversee the election were card-carrying
members of the PDP and had compromised
their role as unbiased umpires.
It listed the officials as Lawrence
Nwurukwu, the National Commissioner of
INEC in charge of the South-East, Gladys
Nwafor, the second INEC Commissioner from
the South-East.
”Mr. Nwuruku was the Chairman of the PDP
in Ebonyi State, while Mrs. Nwafor had
worked closely with First Lady Patience
Jonathan as a grassroots mobilizer,” the APC
said.
“These officials cannot, in all honesty, be
expected to be unbiased, because they have
been compromised by their antecedents.
”If INEC indeed has any hope of organizing a
free, fair and transparent election in
Anambra on Nov. 16th, it must immediately
shelve the plan to send these highly-partisan
and heavily-compromised officials to
supervise the election. Any action short of
that will open INEC to accusations of bias –
which is not what any umpire wants,” APC
said.
The opposition party also said some actions
taken by INEC in recent times had called to
question its ability to stay above the fray as
far as the Anambra election is concerned.
”For example, the voters’ register for
Anambra in 2011 had 2.1 million names,
which came down to 1.8 million after a
review. However, despite continuous
registration by INEC, the names came down
to 1.7 million.
“This kind of chicanery is only possible
under a circumstance in which deliberate
efforts are being made to depopulate the
voters in areas where the opposition has an
edge.
”We are therefore left with no choice than
to call on the National Assembly to seek
explanations from INEC on the hanky- panky.
“This is necessary to ensure that the election
is not rigged by the same body saddled with
ensuring that it is transparently-organized,”
it said.
APC said it was closely monitoring all the
processes leading to the election, since the
success of any poll was not limited to
actions taken on the election day alone, with
a view to ensuring that no candidate is
short-changed by the very body that has the
responsibility to ensure a level-playing field
for all.

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