By Olisemeka Obeche & Francis Ekpone

The vice-presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of deliberate mass disenfranchisement of voters in the South Eastern states through enforced card reader usage.

Obi made the accusation despite a landslide victory recorded by the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against President Muhammadu Buhari in Anambra state and in most states of the region.

The former Anambra state governor argued that the malfunctioning of the card readers deployed by INEC and its non-availability in most voting points in the zone, was a deliberate act by the electoral umpire to disenfranchise most voters from the zone, especially those in Anambra stateof whom two million voters registered.

According to an official result released by the Anambra state collation officer, Prof. Francis Ogbonnaya Otunta, PDP garnered 524,738 votes while APC polled 33,298 votes in the total of 562,336 votes cast. In Abia, PDP polled 219, 698 votes as against APC’s 85,058. PDP secured 355, 553 votes in Enugu while APC managed to secure 54,423. Similarly, PDP swept Ebonyi polls with 258,573 as against APC’s 90.726. In Imo, PDP ran out victory with 334,923 while APC secured 140,463 votes.

Obi told newsmen at his Onitsha residence on Tuesday that INEC insisted on the use of the card reader in Anambra and other states across the South east zone but allowed manual accreditation in other [especially northern] zones which the commission claimed to have registered massive votes for the ruling APC.

“After I had voted on Saturday at my polling unit, the card reader was very slow to recognise anything and with that process, many voters were not allowed to vote and what that meant was that in several voting points in Anambra state, the card reader was not functioning and, where it functioned, it was very slow and we were told that the process would end at a particular time which they eventually did.

“I recalled that people sending text messages to me that they could not vote and I forwarded it to various authorities. There was also a case of non-functioning of card readers especially in highly concentrated areas like Awada, Obosi Urban, Igboukwu and other places and the consequences was that, in Anambra where we have over 2.4 million registered voters, only about 562,000 voters were able to vote.

“While we were told it was compulsory for us to use card reader to vote, I learnt that, in some parts of Nigeria, people were voting without card readers. Even those who voted here without card readers were not counted. Over 80 pulling units where card readers were not used were removed from the system and that means that they were disenfranchised.

“The result has been released, PDP scored 487,550 votes and APC 31,452 votes which are a reflection of what happened in the entire South East. Using Anambra to form my judgment of the whole process, I could see where a state registered 1.5 million voters and nearly a million voted and where we have 2.4 million, we couldn’t achieve up to 700 votes and the reason is obvious because we were given a different set of conditions and others given another set of conditions which shouldn’t be.

“People came out to vote but they couldn’t vote because they were given stringent conditions. I am happy that Dr Chris Ngige, the APC agent in the presidential election also faulted the process because he also raised a concern that many were disenfranchised. There is no reason not to allow people to vote and that is why the result from the South east was so low. We have, in the south east, about 10 million registered voters but cumulatively, only about 20 per cent of that number voted while, in other parts of the country, as much as about 50 percent voted” he lamented.

Meanwhile, the minister of labour and employment and a top player of the All Progressives Congress, Chris Ngige, has threatened to sue the INEC over the defeat of Muhammadu Buhari in Anambra state in last Saturday’s presidential election.

Ngige queried the landslide victory recorded by the People’s Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against his principal, Buhari in Anambra. Atiku polled 487,550 votes to defeat Buhari who recorded 31,452 votes in the state.

The labour minister was particularly not pleased with the results INEC declared in the Idemili area of state. According to Ngige, the final results declared by the electoral body did not tally with the results collated in polling units and wards in the areas. He insisted that, if the results were not withdrawn, he would challenge the declaration in court, stressing that the results declared by INEC was a total breach of the Electoral Act.

“I’m going to challenge these results in court if INEC does not handle this complaint well by ordering a fresh poll in the areas,” he said.

According to the APC agent, card readers failed to work in the area during the elections. “I am calling for the outright cancellation of the presidential election in the Idemili North and Idemili South local government areas or I will take the matter up in court,” he said.

https://orientdailynews.com.ng/politics/inec-disenfranchised-igbo-voters-card/



Lalasticlala seun mynd44

I really blame Jonathan for allowing card reader, the north does not use it, why should the south use it.

Between, what has changed absolutely nothing, no improvement back to default.

Buhari is the biggest scam, yet to declare his asset, yet to say anything about the sham election conducted under his nose.

Little wonder Fela call him out.