APC threatens to reject result of Anambra guber polls

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has
warned that it will not accept the results
of Saturday’s governorship election in
Anambra state if voting does not take
place in all local governments, especially
in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North
and South as well as Akwa South.
In a statement issued in Lagos on
Saturday by its Interim National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the
party also condemned INEC for its
apparently-contrived logistic nightmare
that has left thousands of voters unable
to exercise their franchise, and demanded
the immediate removal of the
incompetent and conniving Resident
Electoral Commissioner for Anambra,
Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu.
APC said it was totally astonished to learn
that INEC has confirmed that materials
meant for Idemili North Local
Government, which has 180,000 voters,
have been hijacked, without saying who
hijacked the ballot papers and why, and
without explaining why the materials
meant for APGA and PDP strongholds
were not hijacked.
The party said equally astonishing is the
fact that the voter’s registers for Idemili
South, the direct Local Government of
the APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, did
not contain the names of voters in the
local government, despite the assurances
by INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega.
”Before the election, political parties
were given voter’s registers that largely
contained the names of most voters.
However, about four days to the election,
Prof Jega said at an interactive
stakeholders forum that there were
problems with the registers, which would
be rectified before the election.
”However, when the supposedly-
corrected registers were brought back,
most of the authentic names in them
have disappeared, without explanation,”
it said.
APC said it also complained about the fact
that the Resident Electoral Commissioner
for Anambra, Prof Onukogu, was very
partial and unprofessional when he
conducted the 2011 election,
”In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted
the general elections in the state, he was
very partial. During the Onitsha South 2
House of Assembly constituency and
Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he
declared the results of both inconclusive,
only for him to announce the results at12
midnight. After we challenged the results
in court and a rerun was ordered, we won
both constituencies.
”We subsequently petitioned INEC and
the Commission assured us that the
same person will not be allowed to
conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was
left in place to do another damage to
INEC as an institution through his glaring
incompetence and partiality, which have
seriously affected the credibility of this
governorship election,” the party said.