PDP, APC, APGA Claim Victory in Imo, Abia Guber Polls-Amby Uneze in Owerri, and Emmanuel Ugwu

Chief Rochas Okorocha

Amidst growing anxiety and apprehension, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are laying claim  to victory in the inconclusive Imo State governorship election of April 11, even as Governor Rochas Okorocha has implored the returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),  Professor Ibidapo Obe, to urgently collate and articulate the remaining results of the election in some polling units and declare him the winner.

But addressing journalists in Owerri, the state Chairman of the PDP, Nnamdi Anyaehie, accused the APC of employing thugs and embarking on schemes of cajoling, intimidating and threatening INEC officials assigned to conduct the election just for him to win through the back door.

He also recalled that the Electoral Officer for Oru East, Mrs. Emmanuela Opara, publicly, before the Chief Returning Officer and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Gabriel Ada, the party agents and the press confessed how she and the returning officer were kidnapped by APC loyalists to a secret location and at gun point to write the results they presented which was accepted by the Chief Returning Officer.

Anyaehie therefore appealed to the people of the state who are fervently  looking forward to a responsible, responsive and accountable government as promised by the PDP candidate to maintain the peace and be rest assured that change would definitely return to the state for the rebuilding of the state.

The governor who also laid claim to victory, while giving an insight of what transpired in the various polling stations, accused both some INEC staff and the police of collaborating with the PDP to commit monumental electoral fraud to the disadvantage of the APC.

Meanwhile, the declaration of the 2015 governorship election in Abia State as inconclusive has continued to generate controversy in the two main parties in the race, the ruling PDP  and the opposition the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, yesterday at a press conference in Umuahia said the party was saddened that the election was declared inconclusive, even when the its governorship candidate “clearly won in a landslide.”

In the results declared by INEC, APGA was credited with 165, 406 votes, while the ruling PDP polled 248, 459, leaving APGA trailing by 83,053.
  But Umeh said that the “bizarre developments” three local governments of Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North where PDP won APGA with huge margins was unrealistic and called for the earlier cancellation of the results from those areas to be sustained.

He alleged that the restoration of the hitherto cancelled results was caused by the visit of some PDP stalwarts to the state collating centre at the INEC office.
However, at another press conference, the state chairman of  the PDP, Senator Emma Nwaka, faulted the position of APGA insisting that the INEC Returning Officer, Professor Benjamin Ozumba, was on the wrong path when he cancelled the results from Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North.

“It is unfortunate that the state Returning Officer said that he acted based on reports from international observers. This is not part of our law,” he said, adding that the returning officer had “overstepped his bounds” by hastily acting on the opinion of international observers.”

He argued that “at the time the Returning Officer reversed himself, he had not declared any person winner, hence it can therefore not be rightly said that he had become functus officio” as his job was still in progress.

Senator Nwaka said that under Section 65 of the Electoral Act, the Returning Officer lacked the power to cancel results as he should only declare the winner once computation of the figures is right.”

“What happened was that the Returning Officer discovered he was in error in cancelling those results and simply called himself to order. The notion making the rounds that he (returningofficer) was intimidated and cajoled to reverse himself holds no water. The truth is that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. Since the purported cancellation has no legal legs to stand on, it simply collapsed.”

Culled from Thisday