The Nation Newspaper

Category: Anambra Election

  • Photo: APC, PDP,LP joint press conference

    Photo: APC, PDP,LP joint press conference

  • Jega’s image at stake, says Ubah

    Labour Party candidate, Dr Ifeany Ubah on Saturday  said the integrity of INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega was at stake for the shoddy election he presided over in Anambra State.

    Ubah said the election should have been a model and a shinning example of what to expect in 2015.

    Addressing newsmen on the outcome of the election in Awka  Ubah said Jega should toe the part of honour by canceling the total election in the state.
    He said he was ready to surrender his victory which he said he secured in Nnewi.
    The election in Nnewi, which he said met all the standards required of good election, should be used as a yardstick to judge the election and on the basis of that, be declared the winner since election in other parts of the state fell short of expectations.
    “Nnewi election would have been used as the yardstick for other elections in the state. The integrity of Jega is at stake now. It is either he toes the part of honour and cancel all the election or he should declare me the winner of the election.
    “I believe that Labour won landslide but n other areas, they disenfranchised people and removed the names of even a party candidate from the voters register”.
    Ubah hinted that the three candidates of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and the LP will soon address a joint press conference condemning and calling for the cancellation of the whole  election as a result of the irregularities associated with it.
  • Anambra: APC calls for cancellation of election

    Anambra: APC calls for cancellation of election

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded for  a total cancellation of Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State

    The call according to the party is  based on ” the massive disenfranchisement of people across the state, caused by the blatant incompetent and/or deliberate sabotage by the electoral commission itself. ”

    In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,the party said the call for total cancellation supersedes its early call for a rerun in four local government areas,and is based on the report it received from its agents as well as from local and foreign observers during the poll.
    It said that INEC, which was saddled with organizing the election, inexplicably used a voters’ register that is totally different from what it gave to political parties ahead of the election, with the result that the new register did not contain the names of most of the registered voters in the state.
    Worse still, APC said, delivery of materials to the strongholds of the APC candidate, Senator Chris Ngige, was either done very late or not at all, a development that further robbed over 300,000 of his supporters in three key local governments of Idemili North, Idemili South and Awka South of their franchise.
    ”After consultations with our agents as well as with local and foreign observers, we have discovered that what we earlier complained about was a child’s play, compared to the widespread disenfranchisement that was orchestrated by the same body given the responsibility of ensuring a free, fair and creditable election on Saturday.
    ”We discovered that INEC has set up a multi-layer arrangement to ensure that most voters in the state were disenfranchised, apparently acting out a script to manipulate the result of the election in favour of a certain candidate. Where voting materials were supplied, the commission provided wrong voters’ register.
    ”Coming after the charade in Delta, this is a serious development that raises questions about the ability of INEC to conduct a free, fair and transparent elections anywhere in Nigeria. It is particularly serious because if people who registered to vote are not able to do so, and even the votes of those who managed to cast them do not count, then anarchy is looming,” the APC  said.
    It called for a probe of INEC to determine why it has taken it upon itself to sabotage its own elections, even when people are determined to endure the orchestrated inconveniences and shun all acts of violence, as was witnessed in Anambra on Saturday when people waited patiently and peacefully, only to go home in total disappointment.

    ”This is a new low for INEC, and unless something is done urgently, the electoral commission may plunge Nigeria into a crisis from which it may not recover,” APC warned.

  • Disenfranchisement: Women protest in Awka

    Disenfranchisement: Women protest in Awka

    Hundreds of women Sunday marched on the streets of Awka, Anambra State capital, protesting alleged disenfranchisement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the governorship election.
    The women, most of who are from Idemili North Local Government Area, said they were denied the right to choose their leader due to late arrival of materials at the polling units on Saturday and the rescheduling.
    The women said rescheduling the election to Sunday morning when most of them were in church was “a wicked act” by INEC.
    They sang songs depicting their anger, saying: “We no go gree oo, we no go gree, anyi aturo vote (we did not vote), we no go gree.”
    As they attempted the march on INEC headquarters in Awka, police officers stationed at the junction leading to the commission’s office stopped them.
    The women dared the police to shoot them, singing in Igbo: “Iwe na ewe anyi, ehh, iwe na ewe anyi, anyi aturo nu vote oo, iwe (we are angry because we didn’t not cast our votes).”
    One of the women said: “It’s our right to choose our leader. Jega promised us free and fair election, yet he failed us.
    “Election didn’t hold in many local government areas yet they are preparing to announce results. Which results do they want to announce? Where did they get the results? It is a rigged result.”
    Meanwhile, final collated results are still being awaited at INEC headquarters.

  • Anambra : PDP candidate calls for election cancellation

    Anambra : PDP candidate calls for election cancellation

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election, Comrade Tony Nwoye has called for the total cancellation of the exercise.

    He described the election as a  “monumental fraud and an embarrassment”.

    “What happened in  Anambra State yesterday was a monumental fraud. It was a big embarrassment. It shows that we are not in anyway better than what we were in the days of Prof. Maurice Iwu. I have never seen an election like this in all my life.

    ” It was an election whereby soldiers assisted in harassing and chasing away voters. It was scientific. It was well planned and aptly executed. Whatever the outcome of the election today or any day they choose to announce the result, it is not acceptable to us.

    ” We thought it was going to be the freest and fairest  with the presence of soldiers. But the opposite was the case. I hereby call for the total cancellation of the election. Jega should come here and conduct the election himself”, he said.

    Nwoye, who held INEC Chairman Professor Attahiru Jega responsible for the irregularities the  characterized the election, alleged that Jega  knew what was wrong but refused to fix it.

    “Jega knew what went wrong. He simply refused to fix it. The Resident Electoral Commissioner ( REC) in Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuemeka  Onukaogu laid the foundation . But the full blame must go to Jega”, Nwoye said.

    The PDP equally refused to participate in the rerun election in the 65 units in Obosi, saying it was an affront on the faith of the people and a disrespect to God.

    “We are not participating in the so-called rerun which they have fixed for today, Sunday. Sunday is the day our people worship. It is an affront on their faith and a disrespect towards God. If the decision was approved by Jega, would he approve a rerun in Kano to be fixed for Friday? “, he queried.

    Nwoye narrated how he got wind of his disenfranchisement  to newsmen. ” On the eve of the election, an INEC official called me to inform me that they have removed my name from the voters list. My ward had over 500 registered voters, but they removed most of the names including those of my parents. They used the military in rigging the election. This is the worst election I haves observed. I have been involved in election matters as a student leader since 1993. I was involved in Abiola’s election as a party officer. Unfortunately, Jega is not accessible. He made it difficult for us to reach him. As for legal option , I will consult before I take any decision”, he said.

  • CODER to INEC: Conduct rerun in disputed LGAs

    The Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms on Sunday asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a rerun election in four local governments where alleged irregularities and electoral frauds were recorded.

    It said this was necessary in order to increase the poll credibility instead of holding it in 65 polling units as proposed.

    The coalition in a statement also urged INEC not to declare any results relating to the election until a rerun election is conducted in the disputed local governments “where many citizens were disenfranchised from exercising their constitutional rights.”

    While commending the people of Anambra for conducting themselves in peaceful manner during the election, it said reports from observers indicated that the election fell short of the people’s expectations.

    According to CODER, some of the irregularities observed in some local governments include ballot snatching, massive thump printing, lateness of materials to polling units, absence of INEC officials and materials at some polling units, inadequate logistic provision for security officers deployed from other states, hostile polling officers to observers, complicity of the security agents in electoral fraud, display of campaign posters and a host of other irregularities.

    The coalition noted that election materials did not arrive on time in many polling units, specifically in Idemili North, South and Ihiala local governments.

    “In Nnokwa Ward, Idemili South LGA, names starting with O-Z were missing from voters’ register.

    “As at 1pm, no INEC officials or materials were seen in Nkpor 4, Idemili North LGA. As a result of late arrivals of voting materials, accreditation could not start on time in Idemili South, Idemili North and Ogbaru LGAs. Although accreditation and voting periods were extended in some of these polling units, INEC needs to do more to enhance people’s confidence in the polls.

    “Furthermore, observers reported that many polling officers in Awka south were hostile and seem not to possess the knowledge of the role of observers in an election. Information that would help observers fill their checklists were denied them and security officials were used to intimidate and harass duly accredited observers. We therefore seize this opportunity to call on INEC to provide adequate training for its polling officers on the complimentary role observers plays in an election before deploying them to the field, “CODER stated.

     

     

  • Why we failed in Anambra – Jega

    Why we failed in Anambra – Jega

    The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has explained why the governorship election was rescheduled in 65 units in Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area.

    He said an electoral officer in charge of the area sabotaged INEC’s preparations by allegedly withholding materials rather than distributing them.

    Besides, he said the result sheets, which differ according to units, were jumbled up.

    The commission had to take time to rectify the mix up, which resulted in the delays experienced, he said.

    Jega said he suspected that the officer was induced by someone who wanted to subvert the process, adding that the alleged culprit has been handed over to the police for prosecution.

    The INEC, chairman, who spoke on AIT during a programme on the election, which was monitored in Awka, said every effort would be made to get to the root of the alleged sabotage.

    He said: “We made all the preparations and decentralised the process of distribution of materials in order to ensure that they get to the polling units in time for the commencement of the election. That was before Saturday.

    “Unfortunately and regrettably – we are humans. We can do all the preparations, but if people are determined to subvert the process, one way or the other they will subvert it.

    “So, they used our staff. I think we should be very careful when we have a staff of about 12,000 in INEC, when one person has committed an offence and then you use it to generalise or condemn everybody in INEC.

    “Our Electoral Officer in charge of Idemili North Local Government, for inexplicable reasons, messed up the distribution of ballot box papers and result sheets. That was the cause of the delay in the distribution of materials in Idemili.

    “All materials were to have been distributed by Friday evening, but for some odd reasons, they made sure that they held onto some of the result sheets, and they also gave wrong result sheets to different polling units.

    “For Anambra election, as we did in Edo and Ondo, every polling unit has a unique result sheet. So, you cannot take one result sheet to a different place, because it will not work.

    “I assured the stakeholders when we met in Awka that materials must get to the polling units before commencement of election.

    “So, when we discovered at about 1am that there was this mix-up, and we tried to reach the Electoral Officer and the supervisor and there was confusion, and we knew something was fishy, we said there would be no deployment until we sorted out the problem.

    “As I speak, we have handed over the Electoral Officer to the police because clearly what he did is a sabotage of the electoral process, including the Local Government supervisor.

    “It took us until about 1pm to be able to sort out what they had jumbled up. We communicated with the community as at 1pm that we were ready to distribute to all the other wards, and materials were distributed.”

    Jega said INEC officials consulted with the community before rescheduling the election, which the All Progressives Congress (APC) rejected.

     

     

  • Anambra election, mockery of democracy – Ngige

    Anambra election, mockery of democracy – Ngige

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Anambra State governorship election, Dr. Chris Ngige, has described the election which took place on Saturday in the state as a mockery of democracy.

    At a world press conference which he addressed Sunday morning in Awka, capital of the state, Ngige said the exercise was “systematically and scientifically rigged.”

    “It is unfortunate, we are toying with the future. We are destroying the hope of those coming behind. Our children will one day rise up and ask why they were born in this part of the world. I weep for Nigeria. This generation has decided not to bequeath anything good to coming generations, “he stated.

    He said from what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has done, it has taken a step forward and three backwards. He alleged that the irregularities that characterized the 2010 governorship election through the manipulation of the voters register, delay of materials to strongholds of particular candidates, restriction of results sheets and use of violence were repeated on Saturday.

    He rejected the rerun in the 65 units in Obosi, saying it was the height of disregard for God and the faith of the people to fix election on a day of worship. He wondered if any election would be fixed on a Friday at 1.00 pm in any northern state of the country.

    Ngige hinted that the APC may subsequently ask for a total cancellation of the whole exercise given that the issue of manipulated voters’ register was noticed throughout the state.

    He also said the APC will explore the legal options open to it in the Electoral Act as amended to seek redress.

    “Nobody knows where we will go to from here in 2015. As it is, we will ask for a total cancellation of the entire exercise giving the degree of fraud, especially the question of result sheets not being sent with other sensitive materials. There is provision for us to seek redress from the Tribunal to the Appeal Court down to the Supreme Court and we will take full advantage of this,” he said.

     

     

  • Anambra election officials ‘escape’ robbery attack

    No fewer than 20 election officials in the Anambra governorship poll were attacked in the early hours of Sunday by armed robbery suspects along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway.

    One of the officials, who preferred anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka that they were attacked at about 3am while returning from Ihiala after the election.

    The electoral officer said they were rescued by soldiers who were covering them from behind.

    According to him, the suspects stopped them, but on sighting the security vehicle trailing behind, they took to their heels.

    “Some of us had already jumped out of the vehicle, and the timely intervention of the soldiers saved us.

    “As soon as the robbers saw other vehicles behind us in a convoy, they escaped into the bush.

    “We thank God for saving us. I wonder what would have happened to us, if there was no adequate security,’’ he said.

    He said that none of the officials was hurt, neither did they lose any of their belongings in the incident.

     

  • Photo: Ngige’s press conference on Anambra poll

    Photo: Ngige’s press conference on Anambra poll