Key highlights
- Alex Otti alleged manipulation of election results in Abia State.
- According to him, the collation centre was flooded with counterfeit results.
- Some of the local governments where the Labour Party won but the results were allegedly manipulated are: Obingwa, Osisioma, Aba North and Aba
Alex Otti, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in Abia State, has raised concerns about the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s alleged manipulation of original polling booth results during the collation of results at some local government councils across the state.
He stated this at his country home in Isiala Ngwa Local Government Area, urging the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, to bring the electoral body’s leadership in Abia State to order so that they do not subvert the will of the people.
What he said: Otti alleged the PDP’s scheme was to flood the collation centre with counterfeit results.
- “So they are making efforts to push fake results to the collation centre in Obingwa local government.”
- “Unfortunately, the PDP government has refused to allow some of the results to stand, and they are doing this with the active connivance of some compromised INEC staff and security agencies.”
- “Virtually all the results that have been uploaded and released, Labour Party won by a landslide”.
- “The local governments involved are Obingwa, Osisioma, Aba North and Aba South where we won overwhelmingly. Obingwa is a very interesting case because, in the majority of the wards in active connivance with INEC, the BVAS was not used.”
He urged the Inspector General of Police to intervene as soon as possible to prevent a breakdown in law and order in the state if the people’s will is undermined.
He also called on the Federal Government and particularly the INEC Chairman to ensure that the right thing is done in Abia State. He indicated that INEC had clearly stated that the BVAS would be used for voting in this election, which was used.
- “I expect that any result that is not coming out from BVAS accreditation will not be accepted. So, I like the INEC Chairman to prevail on the REC and all other officials of INEC to give peace a chance and do the right thing.”
Voting results in some polling units: Some hours before the alleged manipulation of results, the LP candidate won in some polling units such as Umuahia polling units 022,023 and 024.
- Polling unit 022
In a similar vein, the LP received more votes winning 69 votes.
ADC received 2, YPP 6, PDP 6, PDP 2, APC 1, and APGA 1.
- Polling unit 023
LP won in Umuahia’s polling unit 023 at St. Stephen’s Primary School with 61 votes.
Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Peoples Party, YPP, was behind in second place with only six votes.
With five votes, Professor Greg Ibe of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) finished third.
Bishop Sunday Onuoha of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Okey Ahiwe of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) each received one vote, while Chief Ikechi Emenike of the All Progressive Congress (APC) received two votes.
- Umuahia polling unit 024
In polling unit 024, LP also won with 114 votes while ADC trailed behind with 7 votes. YPP got 5 votes; APGA 4; while PDP and ADC scored 2 votes each.
As it stands, counting is still going on in other polling units.
