PRESS RELEASE INTERIM REPORT THE SO CALLED ABA SOUTH STATE CONSTITUENCY BY-ELECTION HELD ON 16TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2014, A DISTORTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS. The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Abia State Chapter condemns in the strongest possible term and rejects in its entirety the process and outcome of the so called by-election which took place in the Aba South State Constituency yesterday 16th day of August, 2014. The exercise is nothing but a fraud, barefaced manipulation and a grand distortion of the democratic process and thus condemnable. It is disheartening that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC appears to be getting their acts together in others states that had run election recently the same cannot be said of Abia State and what transpired in the Aba South State Constituency by-election gives much room for concern and trepidation. The forces of darkness and those who seek to perpetually expropriate and countermand the will and wishes of the masses working together with the left over bad eggs in INEC came out in full force to thwart the desire and wishes of the people of Aba South State Constituency. Chiefly amongst these was the state Independent National Electoral Commission in Umuahia, her Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Jacob S. Jatau, the Aba South transitional Chairman, one N.C.N.C. Okoli, a man associated with all rigged election in Aba since 2007 and the Commander-In-Chief himself, the governor of Abia State, Chief T. A. Orji. It became obvious that once these individuals decided to foist on the people of Aba South a bare illiterate, a primary school dropout they would stop at nothing to accomplish their machination and that APGA having gone to court prior to the election to stop their insidious agenda would bear the brunt of their vile contraption. The last occupant of the office, Iheasimuo Nwogu died on the 20th of March, 2014. Under the Law a by-election must be held to fill the vacancy not later than 90 days from that day. The Resident Electoral Commission, Prof Jatau dragged this period well beyond the stipulated time all to buy time for the ruling party and to so shortened the unexpired period of the tenure of the office where it will be meaningless (in their thinking ) to contest whatever fait accompli they would foist on the people. He only invited the leadership of the registered political parties in the state to a meeting on the 11th day of June, 2014 wherein it was agreed and the poll fixed for 16th August, 2014. It took Professor Jatau another one month to issue the Notice of Election, which was communicated to the political parties on the 11th day of July, 2011. The implications being that the political parties had only one month to conduct primaries to elect candidates to the by-election, mobilize, campaign and prepare for the election. Only two political parties beside the Peoples’ Democratic Party who this time wasting strategy ostensibly was designed for could cross the enormous huddle. Also in June 2014 INEC undertook a revision of voters register within the state inclusive of the Aba South State Constituency. The new voters register by necessary implication of the exercise was never made available to the political parties even on request nor was it ever displayed as required by Law. The number of registered voters of the constituency was unknown and shrouded in secrecy. Furthermore, following the continuous registration exercise and the distribution of the permanent voters card (PVC). The statistics thereto was never made public and the number of unclaimed PVC in the custody of the Independent National Electoral Commission was never known. We had earlier warned that the ruling party in the state had perfected plans to rig the by-election by inducing apathy on the electorate so as to have a low turnout of voters in the exercise to water the ground for inflation of votes. This glaringly played out yesterday. Penultimate to 16th August, 2014, markets within the constituency had announced a closure of markets and stores for the election. Surprisingly, in the early hours of 16th August, 2014 Abia State Government placed repeated announcements on radio stations to effect that markets and stores within the constituency would remain open and that people should go about their normal business as there would be no restriction of movement within the period of election. This was a first of its kind in the history of election in the country and the ultimate apathy inducing strategy which shows in the actual figures of votes recorded which is in the region of 1000. Even the inflated total votes announced by INEC of less than 2500 votes in a constituency that has well over 300,000 registered voters is more than telling. No sooner had election commenced than reports started coming in of one malpractice or the other and intimidation and harassment of our supporters and agents. In areas where APGA was perceived to be strong, agents of PDP and thugs instructed INEC ad hoc staff not to accredit our agents and effectively excluded us from the election. While these were going on calls were made and sms sent to the Electoral officer of Aba South, Mrs. Okereke who premised to call INEC field staff to order all to no avail. Further reports were made to the Electoral Officer of the collusion of the presiding officers at the various polling units with PDP agents and the accreditation of PDP members with the temporarily voters cards which were no longer in use with the coming into operation of the permanent voters cards. The promise to send words across to the supervisors in charge to stop and reversed any such accreditation never materialized as INEC were hand in glove with the PDP over these anomalies. Precisely, Ward 5, OHAZU I, Units 017, 018, 019, 020, 021. 022. 023. 024 situated in Agulana Primary School, Units 06, 08 in Umuogele Primary School and Unit 015 in Iheorji Secondary School all in Ward 6, OHAZU II, was the worst affected Units At exactly 11.20am and while voting was yet to commence the ballot box for Unit 017 already had thumb printed ballot papers inside it. This was immediately reported to the electoral officer and nothing came out of the complaints. Also a similar charade took place in Units 27 and 28 (Nawfia Hall), Ward 5 OHAZU I. This time the onslaught was led by a police officer, Inspector Emmanuel Ogbonna who demanded that APGA agents leave the polling centre. When the agents stood their ground, the said police officer mobilized PDP thugs and beat one of the agents who refused to flee, Mr. Ekene Onuoha to a pulp. Meanwhile, branded Ochendo Youth Movement vehicles were moving from one polling centre to another loaded with thugs and aided by the no restriction of movement put in place by the state government and harassing our agents and inducing the few voters who turned out with cash. As the voting proper was coming to an end and counting of votes about to begin all hell was let loose. The Transition Committee Chairman, Dr. Okoli aided by security personal and thugs were moving round hijacking and impounding ballot boxes from polling units across the constituency. In Ward 7 IGWEBUIKE, votes in most polling units were counted and recorded and when PDP thugs and security men saw the trend of voting and that PDP were losing, they quickly impounded the ballot box of unit 008, Ohabiam Secondary School where APGA had 9 votes, PDP 1 vote and APC nil. In the same In Ward 7 IGWEBUIKE, they moved to Nnentu Village Hall and snatched the ballot boxes of Units 015, 016, 017, 018, 019. Votes declared in Ward 7 beside the 6 units which the security agent and PDP thugs didn’t not allowed to be counted at the polling units, APGA had the majority of votes. In Ward 4 NGWA Unit 030 in Umunneishi, the ballot box was forcefully taken over by PDP thugs and security men against the protestation of the voters who insisted that the votes be counted at the polling unit. In Ward 5, OHAZU I, Units 017, 018, 019, 020, 021. 022. 023. 024 situated in Agulana Primary School which recorded 10, 2, 7, 6, 13, 2, 5 and 3 accreditation respectively but total votes announced were as follows; 30, 24, 7, 7, 17, 2, 4, 3. Units 027 and 028 in Nnawfia Hall which recorded 4 and 12 accreditation but total votes cast as announced by INEC jumped to 97 and 134 votes respectively. These facts and figures form part of the interim report and position of our party. The thinking that if our party is placed third or last will stifle our resolve and abort the legal process already undertaken is a vain wish. Rather we shall pursue this rape on democracy even further and at the election tribunal even if the tenure will remain a day. We shall issue further reports within the next couple of days. Signed: Prince Ukaegbu Esq. (State Chairman).
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 19:54:38 +0000
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