APGA Adopts Bianca Ojukwu As National Leader

Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, wife of late National Leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu has been made the party’s National Leader.

The party under the leadership of Chief Maxi Okwu, yesterday disclosed this in a communiqué signed by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Stanley Chira, which was read by the National Chairman, Chief Maxi Okwu after a National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting in Abuja.

“The National Executive Committee, NEC, of our great party reconfirms and further resolves the earlier decision taken on February 16, 2013 and on March 22, 2013, at the one year anniversary of the demise of our late leader and icon, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

“That he remains our symbol and leader the fact of his transit to glory notwithstanding. His wife and next of kin, Iyom Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu is hereby adopted as the living embodiment of his ideals.

“She shall in his stead be acknowledged as Leader.
She is aware of the existing situation and she gave her consent, and we adopted her. We still respect Governor Peter Obi as one of our leaders, and he is also aware of this development,” the communique said.

PRESS RELEASE: Ngige, Ubah, Nwoye Want Anambra Guber Poll Cancelled

Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Labour Party (LP) and Mr.

By APC Publicity Unit

The Anambra State Governorship Election may have lost any iota of credibility as three of the four major political parties that participated in the election have called for the cancellation of the election.

Senator Chris Ngige (OON) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Labour Party (LP) and Mr. Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have called for outright cancellation of the governorship election, saying it was marred with serious irregularities.
In a joint statement, the governorship candidates said: ““We are of the candid view that the sham election does not reflect the wishes and aspirations of Anambra voters. Our call for the cancellation of this election is reinforced by the public admission by Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC Chairman that some INEC staffs sabotaged the conduct of the election. This call for the cancellation of the election would have been unnecessary if INEC had postponed the conduct of the election after becoming aware of the sabotage of the election by INEC officials.”
In an earlier world press conference, Senator Ngige complained that there were grave irregularities that marred many aspects of the election in at least four local councils considered by all as his strongholds, adding that there was a pre-determined plot to disenfranchise his supporters and ensure that he did not win the election.

Specifically, Ngige named Idemili North Local Government Area, Idemili South Local Government Area, Awka South Local Government Area and Ihiala Local Government Area as the areas worst hit by the electoral malfeasance. These areas have 377, 875 registered voters of the total 1, 784, 536 registered voters. He said the election in some wards in Ihiala Local Government Area was riddled with fraudulent malpractices, calling for its cancellation.

Ngige pointed out that the manipulation that characterized the Maurice Iwu led INEC has resurfaced in Jega’s era.

Ubah in an interview with AIT said that while the election in the Nnewi area was free and fair, the poll was plagued by irregularities in most parts of the state. He accused Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) of massive corruption of the electoral process with state resources, saying the recently approved N36 billion supplementary budget was deployed to induce voters and electoral officials.

On his part, Nwoye who was visibly angry while speaking on AIT, described the election as the worst he had witnessed in his lifetime. Nwoye has every reason to be embittered; even as a candidate being voted for, he was unable to vote for himself. But he was only one of the many voters whose names were not in on the voters’ register. Also affected was PDP stalwart, Chief Arthur Eze.

Nwoye said the election was a pre-meditated plot to throw up the APGA candidate, Chief Willie Obiano, adding that the APGA leadership deployed the security agencies to protect riggers and closed their eyes to mindless inducement of voters.

There were strong indications of a systematic plot to disenfranchise voters sympathetic to Ngige, as election materials meant for areas where he has strong support base were not delivered or got to the polling stations late. In other areas, result sheets meant for polling units were deliberately mixed up or were not delivered at all. It took the personal intervention of Ngige and his team for materials to be delivered to his Alor town around 11 a.m.

INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega admitted that his staff compromised the process especially in Idemili North Local Government Area but declined to order re-run in the entire local council, leading APC, Labour and PDP among others to pull out of today’s rescheduled election in Obosi comprising 65 polling units.

In also calling for total cancellation of the election, APC’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the call supersedes the party’s early call for a rerun in four local government areas. The APC said INEC inexplicably used a voters’ register totally different from the one it gave to political parties ahead of the election, adding that the new register did not contain the names of most of the registered voters in the state.

His words: “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.”

The APC said that “coming after the charade in Delta, this is a serious development that raises questions about the ability of INEC to conduct 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 party 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,” APC observed, warning that “unless something is done urgently, the electoral commission may plunge Nigeria into a crisis from which it may not recover,” APC warned.

ANAMBRA: APGA claims victory

AWKA — The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA yesterday claimed victory in last Saturday’s Anambra gubernatorial election just as the major opposition political parties in the contest kicked, alleging wide scale irregularities.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, however, alleged sabotage on the part of some staff of the commission who he claimed derailed the commission’s plans for smooth delivery of election materials to some sections of Anambra Central Senatorial district.

Ngige,Obiano,Ubah and Nwoye

Meanwhile, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its candidate in the election, Comrade Tony Nwoye were divided yesterday over the conduct of the poll. While the PDP praised the poll for being well conducted, Nwoye at a press conference in Awka denounced the poll as rigged.

The muttering of the opposition parties nonetheless, the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh claimed that the victory of the party in the gubernatorial election was well deserved.

He dismissed allegations by the candidates of PDP, APC and LP that the election was rigged as a non-issue saying APGA won convincingly because the people have absolute confidence in the party and its candidate.

Umeh addressed a news conference in Awka in reaction to the complaints by the three major contestants that the election was rigged by Governor Peter Obi with the support of some corrupt INEC officials who deleted names of their supporters from the voters register among other allegations.

Umeh told newsmen that he was surprised by the three parties’ claims that they were cheated in the election, saying their claims were untrue.

He said that unlike the previous elections in the state, there was no incidence of ballot box snatching, violence or other irregularities to warrant anybody faulting the exercise.

“As far as I am concerned the election is free and fair, those people crying blue murder have inordinate ambition. By tomorrow when the result will be out I will face them. I challenge anybody who cares to analyze the results carefully and they will realize that APGA won in those councils where it had won other elections in past polls. There is no need whatsoever for any of the candidates to fault the exercise,” Umeh said.

He said that APGA “is not scared of their threats to go to court because APGA had been in court since its inception and cannot be afraid of litigation.

“What Ngige is doing now is his stock in trade since he has become a serial gubernatorial contestant and as I speak to you now he is still in court over the 2010 election.

“For Tony Nwoye, he was not even in the race. This is a man whom the Supreme Court revalidated his candidacy in less than a week to the election. He only campaigned for four days in the whole of Anambra state and can not claim to have been rigged out of an election he was not actively involved,” the APGA Chairman who is the  party’s State Collatting Officer, said.

Before his address, the three major candidates, Tony Nwoye, PDP; Ifeanyi Ubah, Labour and Chris Ngige, APC; had at separate press conferences denounced the conduct of the poll and called for its cancellation.

Opposition candidates in joint conference

The trio subsequently last night addressed a joint press conference where they made a joint call for the cancellation of the polls. They alleged that they would not accept any result from the election as conducted last weekend.

Ubah faulted the outcome of the election, saying that having won convincingly at his Nnewi North local government, which is the stronghold of APGA (the home of Ojukwus), he was confident that he would have won in the entire state had APGA not rigged the poll.

He alleged that APGA bought votes at N10,000 each within Nnewi and the money was distributed to willing voters by a principal officer of the State House of Assembly.

Rejecting the outcome of the election yesterday, Nwoye told a news conference in Awka that the “the election is far below average and cannot be said to be free and fair” adding that “it was heavily manipulated by INEC in collusion with security agents in favour of Governor Peter Obi’s preferred candidate, Willie Obiano.”

I’ve never seen this kind of rigging — Nwoye

Nwoye said: “I have been involved in many elections in this country since my secondary schools days and particularly in 1993 presidential election where Moshood Abiola emerged, I have never seen this type of rigging. I have never seen an election where the military men and police were harassing and intimidating voters, assisting the INEC and APGA agents to chase away the PDP members at the collation centres to write results.”

Nwoye was, however, countered by his party’s national secretariat which praised the conduct of the election.

A statement released by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh while commending INEC for the good conduct of the election said: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hereby commends President Goodluck Jonathan for providing adequate security and the enabling environment for the conduct of credible, free and fair governorship election in Anambra state last Saturday in spite of any perceived hitch(es).

“In the same vein we commend the entire people of Anambra state and all stakeholders who played key roles in ensuring peaceful and orderly conduct of the process.

“While we now await the official result, we wish to express our satisfaction that the election was conducted without disturbances, despite the massive importation of political thugs by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as their heinous plots to introduce violence to disrupt and rig the poll having discovered that they have been rejected by the people.

“We also commend the candidate of our great party, Comrade Tony Nwoye for his resilience, grassroots appeal and credible outing which brought him to the forefront in the race despite having only two weeks to campaign. This is evident in the results so far released in which he roundly defeated the candidate of the APC who has been campaigning for four months before our candidate. The PDP is indeed happy with Comrade Tony Nwoye’s performance so far.

“While we charge all our members to continue to remain calm and focused, we wish to state that our final position on the election will be made known when the  overall result is declared by INEC.”

The APC meanwhile, in a reaction to the development called for total cancellation of the election result saying that delivery of materials to strongholds of the APC was sabotaged.

In its reaction articulated by the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said:

“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.”

Jega meanwhile yesterday alleged sabotage on the part of its officers during the election.

Speaking on AIT yesterday, the electoral chief said that a particular officer who masterminded the derailment of the distribution of election materials to Idemili North Local Government Area of the state has been identified and would be prosecuted.

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.”

The three opposition candidates of PDP, APC and LP, at a joint press conference vowed to reject whatever result that would be announced by INEC from the elections in AnambraState.

The three candidates had earlier in the day expressed their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the election which is yet to be announced by INEC as at press time last night.

Ngige who was flanked by the other two and spoke on behalf of the trio said:  ”Our stand is that Saturday election was characterized by  fraud, malpractices  and massive irregularities and we call on INEC to put in place another process to conduct a fresh election to enable the people of Anambra elect their governor that will take over from the present governor on March 17 next year.

“The irregularities clearly noticed included the  omission of the names of many voters in the registers presented for the election in the  over 4,000 polling units.

We were assured that the process will be free and fair during the stake holder’s meeting with the INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, but little did we know that they had planned to disenfranchise many of our supporters by deleting their names from the register everywhere in the  local government areas. It was so massive and we hereby reject the voters registers used for this election.

“We were assured by the INEC chairman that the electoral process would be transparent but we experienced was to the contrary.

“Thirdly we discovered that result sheets were translocated other than the purpose for which they were meant. For instance some result sheets meant for some polling booths in Idemili were taken to another area even when they were coded.

“There were massive. harassment and intimidation of voters and our party agents. The party agents’ accreditation cards were described as fake and they were hounded out hence we had no agents at most poling booths.

“There was massive deployment of money by APGA through its serving commissioners, party chieftains, contractors and some other individuals who  were deployed to pay each voter as much as N10,000 to vote for APGA.

“Having noticed the various flaws …we have come to inevitable conclusion that this commission is determined to go back to its old ways and that the  much gains made in 2011 election is being reversed.

“We, therefore, urge the INEC to cancel the charade called election conducted in Anambra and deploy transparent officials including a new Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC to conduct a fresh election in the state.

“No election result should be announced as the elections have not been concluded. What they are doing now is an exercise in futility.

“We are peace-loving people in Anambra state and they should not provoke the people to violence. A word is enough for the wise.”

Both Ubah and Nwoye said they all agreed to take a common position on the issue, insisting that the election should be cancelled.

TMG faults calls for cancellation

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) said yesterday that it would not subscribe to total cancellation of the Anambra Governorship Election.

The TMG is one of the observer groups that monitored the election held on Saturday across the state.

The TMG Chairman, Malam Zikirulahi Ibrahim, who was reacting to the problem in Idemili North where the election did not hold on Saturday and was rescheduled for Sunday.

In a telephone Interview, Ibrahim said that in spite of the problem, INEC performed well in some other areas where elections held.

“From our observation, we know the commission tried, but we also know areas where elections need to be repeated.”

“We, however, believe that INEC could have done better by holding the re-scheduled election on a working day instead of a Sunday, considering the religious belief of the people of the area.

“Our concern is that anything worth doing is worth doing well.”

Ibrahim advised INEC to let the entire World see that the issues arising from the Anambra poll were appropriately addressed.

 The details of the results of the election, according to Epoke, lecturer at the University of Calabar is as follows:

Aguata LGA: APC 5275; APGA 11,180; LP 1129; PDP 4,275; PPA 1574. APGA won

Ayamelum: APC 1827; APGA 9121; LP 624; PDP 5,681; PPA 31.  APGA won

Anambra East: APC 1418; APGA 15,300; LP 511; PDP. APGA won

Anambra West: APC 2,478; APGA 5,128; LP 321; PPA 148. APGA won

Anaocha: APC 3,174; APGA 14,563; LP 733; PPA 138. APGA won.

Awka North: APC 1,712; APGA: 5,385; LP: 474; PDP 3,943; PPA 122. APGA won

Awka South: APC 6,596; APGA: 9,206; LP 1,648; PDP 5689; PPA 208. APGA won.