The Abia chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has made an official statement about the results of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, saying that the results are unacceptable to the party.
The party said this in a statement released by Chief Abraham Amah, the party’s Vice Chairman and acting State Publicity Secretary. The statement was given to reporters in Umuahia on Sunday.
“Abia PDP will not accept INEC’s double standards in the Abia North and Abia South National Assembly elections,” says the title of the statement.
The party said it was embarrassing that INEC went ahead and announced the results while it was getting ready for the rescheduled elections in Arochukwu and Ohafia Local Government Areas.
It also said that elections didn’t happen in 72 polling places where an estimated 60,000 people would have voted in two council areas.
It said that INEC had rescheduled the elections for Sunday but moved them to Monday. While people were getting ready to vote on Monday, the commission went ahead and said that the polls were not conclusive.
It also said that the commission took away the votes of a large number of people, far more than the lead that the supposed winner had.
The party also said that what happened “lends the election umpire to absolute ridicule.
“The inability of INEC to stick to extant rules and provisions of the new Electoral Act as it concerns the two senatorial districts also calls to question the overall national elections, which have been described by many as a charade only fit for the playbook of toddlers in the kindergarten.
“In Abia North, after the conduct of the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, INEC announced that the elections were inconclusive because elections did not hold in 72 polling units in Agborji, Isiama and Okamu Wards in Ohafia Local Government Area, among others.
“It went ahead to state that elections to cover those areas would be held on Monday, February 27, to ensure that at least 60,000 persons from those wards were not disenfranchised.
“To our chagrin, the same INEC did not show up for the fresh elections,” it stated.
A similar thing happened in Abia South Senatorial District, the party said.
He also said that INEC announced the results on March 3 while people were waiting for the rescheduled election.
It stated, “The Abia PDP wishes to state in very strong, clear and categorical terms that it will not accept the charade being paraded as results of inconclusive elections.”
It asked INEC “to do the needful and ensure that it goes ahead to conduct the remaining elections to enable it determine the true winners”.
Amah also said that the PDP National Executive Committee had sent INEC a list of the candidates for Governor and Deputy Governor from the PDP in Abia.
He said that the letter to INEC listed Ahiwe Okechuku Ambrose and Chief Okey Igwe as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates, respectively.
Amah said Abia PDP was happy with the list and had nothing to say against it.
He said that the party and the NEC have never disagreed about the list of candidates, neither now nor in the past.
He said that Igwe was replaced with Dr Jasper Uche as Ahiwe’s running mate after Ikonne died because it was noted that Igwe had a lawsuit against his dual citizenship.
A new governorship primary election was held by the Abia PDP, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), after the death of Prof. Uche Ikonne, who had won the party’s nomination for governor in December 2022 before his unfortunate demise in January.
Amah said that he hoped the party would win the governorship election and that the party was working harder to get a landslip victory.
According to NAN, the PDP only won one of the eight seats in the House of Representatives and none in the Senate.
He said the “Obi wave” was to blame for the party’s terrible showing in the polls.
He promised that the same thing wouldn’t happen again in the elections for the Governor and the House of Assembly “because these are local elections.”
