Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu in Abia State in this interview gives his narration of the recent governorship election in Abia State and plans by his rival to shortchange him. Excerpts:

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

How will you situate your experiences in the last governorship election in Abia State?

What happened on April 11 was that election umpires during the guber elections in Abia State at a point lost control and it looked like they were confused.

The stipulation according to the Electoral Act is that once elections are conducted they are declared and pasted in all the units; once this is done, the results are collated at the ward level where they are announced and taken to the local government level where they are collated globally and announced.

At that point one could see a clear picture of the House of Assembly winners and losers.

Rancour or violence

That same result is then forwarded by the electoral officers to the INEC office in Umuahia but on that day the elections went on smoothly, went on very well and the security agents including the DIG, the Commissioner of Police and the state director of SSS reported that the elections were largely free and fair and without rancour; the elections went on smoothly without rancour or violence.

Suddenly as the collation of results were on-going at the INEC office in Umuahia, the Resident Electoral Commissioner Prof Selina Oko in collaboration with the Returning Officer (RO) decided to embark on a summersault by cancelling results that had already been announced at the polling units; when their attention was drawn to the fact that they did not have the right to embark on such cancellations they abandoned the strategy and went ahead to announce the results in the 17 LGAs of Abia State and my party represented by my humble self was leading clearly with 83,000 votes plus.

When they saw the tally and realised it was not going their way, they spent six good hours doing some arithmetic that led to serial cancellation of some of the results which to my mind was arbitrary because going by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we had a clear majority and we had also won a quarter of the votes in more than two thirds of the local governments of the state, clearly defining us as victors in the contest.

The heavens were let loose. People started agitating, people started suspecting in all manner of directions and questions were asked. Unknown to us the REC is an auntie of my opponent, Dr Alex Otti. So we now knew why it was difficult for them to announce the results and declare us winner.

We won that election but they have asked for a re-run in certain areas they have cancelled at the state level. We are watching to see what those who sent them to Abia will do about it.

What role did the report of international observers play in deciding the results?
Otti and Ikpeazu

Otti and Ikpeazu

Initially they said an international observer raised her hand to say the elections were marked by violence and the question was you know the procedure for the operation of international observers. Their own is to write their reports to their leaders who would go ahead to submit their findings to the appropriate quarters.

They are not to be heard during the collation of results. Incidentally, that international observer happens to be an Arochukwu girl who lives in the US. So how can an Arochukwu girl who comes from the same place as Otti be a reasonable source of information for the cancellation of results?

It does not even matter who was involved; nobody has the right to cancel results that have been collated and announced at the units because the INEC chairman is represented by the REC who is represented by the EOs at the various LGAs while the EOs are also represented by the presiding officers at the various units and once the presiding officers and all the agents sign, that result is said to be valid; no person has the right to cancel or alter the results emanating from such polling units.

Apart from the international observers, who else had reason to have the results cancelled?

It was just the international observer. I must also say that there were no video clips supporting this cancellation unlike in states where results were declared even with clear cases of violence or disturbances; yet in Abia there is no evidence supported by a video clip.

What contention from APGA led to the cancellation?

APGA had no contention whatsoever; APGA was saying that an international observer reported or witnessed evidence of violence. Yet there was no video clip supporting such report. So many things happened. There were claims and counter claims that Jega had called to ask for cancellation and when Jega was raised on phone, he said no that he never called for cancellation. He said no, that he did not call anybody. It was a very messy situation.

However I want to say that the background to all this is that my opponent had a chair that was standing on three legs; he didn’t plan for a bloc vote anywhere unlike my candidacy that took a bearing from the Ukwa Ngwa bloc that has nine local governments out of 17 LGAs in Abia State and these are people from Abia South, people who have not tasted power in the state until the PDP through its rotational arrangement zoned this power to it.

Rotational arrangement

Consistently I come from a local government that delivers the highest number of votes in the state. During the Presidential election from 1999, Obingwa had the highest or second highest number of votes in Abia. During the Presidential election, we voted 64,000 and during the governorship it went up to 82,000.

The reasons are clear; I come from Obingwa, my wife comes from Obingwa; everything about my family tree revolves around Obingwa; again because my opponent is completely new in politics, he does not understand these things; besides whereas I am from Abia South, my running mate is from Abia North but in his own case he is from Arochukwu and ended up choosing a running mate from the same Federal Constituency, Ohafia all in Abia North.

How is he expecting people to take him seriously? He did not take into cognizance the geopolitical setting of Ndi Abia.

His surprise that I am being supported by my people is neither here nor there. Again, the so called international observer is a biased party, an international observer cannot cancel a result. It is not in our constitution.

Standing by to see; are you hopeful given the situation on ground?

I am very hopeful, given everything and consistently. Except a miracle happens, there is no way Otti and Oko can turn around the results.


- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/with-the-people-behind-me-i-will-win-ikpeazu/#sthash.mmaIgKSc.dpuf

Ok Na, Let's See!!

Abia people go gree vote?
Nna go d find way to enter im shop.
After you go hear total registered voters-70,000 from a whole state.
Ma hear word

VOTING THIS MAN IN IS VOTING TA ORJI

Ikpeazu win overall but his victory would be short lived.
What Otto just has to do is to mobilize and get as many votes as possible in d supplementary elections,eventhough d gap would be too wide to breach this Saturday.
However when he goes to the tribunal as he definitely will, the massive rigging in many LGA by PDP would eventually undo Ikpeazu.

doctokwus:
Ikpeazu win overall but his victory would be short lived.
What Otto just has to do is to mobilize and get as many votes as possible in d supplementary elections,eventhough d gap would be too wide to breach this Saturday.
However when he goes to the tribunal as he definitely will, the massive rigging in many LGA by PDP would eventually undo Ikpeazu.

You didn't read where Dr Ikpeazu said APGA had no evidence nor objections except a concocted report from a lone International Observer without supporting evidence of the said violence.

What will they use to convince the tribunal beyond every reasonable doubt that the elections were rigged?

Remember, Dr Ikpeazu said, they have all the signed election results from ward level to LGAs