*Accuses INEC of manipulating Ebonyi South Senatorial By-Election
By; MKPUMA ENYINNA, Abakaliki
Following the alleged manipulation and intimidation of opposition parties in the just concluded Ebonyi South Senatorial Election, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate for the poll, Barr. Silas Onu has alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has literally become an extension of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State because of roles and support which led to the alleged manipulation of the senatorial election results in favour of APC.
Barr. Onu while addressing newsmen in Abakaliki, alleged that when PDP congresses were held, the party notified INEC as required by law, but they deliberately and wilfully decided not to monitor the congresses for the election of delegates.
He further said that the REC, working with some unknown elements who claimed to be “intending delegates”, instituted an action before the Federal High Court seeking the cancelation of their duly conducted primary election, which was certainly funded by the APC and with the complete collaboration of a Federal High Court Judge.
Barr. Onu also explained that the case was one that should not survive 10 minutes on any court docket as the law is visible even to a blind person that only an aspirant who physically participates in a primary election can question the outcome of such an election, but the judge pretended not to understand that from the prayer/reliefs sought in the Originating Summons.
He vowed to challenge the outcome the election in a court of competent jurisdiction to ensure that the right thing is done for the sake of justice and fairness.
“Saturday 3rd of February, 2024 was a scheduled date for the by-election to elect a new Senator for Ebonyi South Senatorial District. The build up to this date was eventful and full of amazing experiences, especially with the visible show of love and acceptance for our great party and my candidature – I am eternally grateful for these.
“In the build up to the election, we also saw how institutions can become obstacle to achieving the mandate given to them by law. We say this as a result of the shameful conduct of INEC, especially the Ebonyi State office that have literally become an extension of the APC in the state.
‘When we held our congresses, we notified INEC as required by law and they deliberately and wilfully decided not to monitor our congresses for the election of delegates, citing factions within the PDP – one that only existed in the mind of the Resident Electoral Commissioner. We held our congresses and soon thereafter, the REC, working with some unknown elements who claimed to be “intending delegates”, instituted an action before the Federal High Court seeking the cancelation of our duly conducted Primary Election. This was certainly funded by the APC and with the complete collaboration of the Federal High Court Judge.
“The case was one that should not survive 10 minutes on any court docket as the law is visible even to a blind person that only an ASPIRANT who physically participates in a primary election can question the outcome of such an election. The judge pretended not to understand that from the prayer/reliefs sought in the Originating Summons, it is the Primary Election that was being questioned by people referred to as “intending delegates”.
“He went on to create legal standing for them and purported to have also cancelled our primary election and ordering that none should even hold – against the clear provisions of law that courts cannot stop the holding of elections. This corrupt judge was cleverly used to interfere with the conduct and outcome of the said election.
`The result of the election interference by the Judge was clear as only 58,075 voters came out to vote from the total registered voters/PVC collection of 484,259 in the five LGAs of Ebonyi South. So many of our voters were told that the PDP was no longer on the ballot as “Court had disqualified Silas Joseph Onu”. People gave up on the process, hence the very low turn-out on the election day.
“That was not enough for INEC and the APC, they went further to ensure that election did not take place by deliberately circumventing the BVAS in virtually every polling unit, after some level of accreditation had been done. So, where a particular polling unit had an accreditation of 100 voters, they deliberately and forcefully hijacked the ballot papers and thumbprint without accreditation. Then write a result that indicates they had won that polling unit with 1,000 votes. This was not done by mistake or due to lack of knowledge – it is the new way that INEC rig election for the government. Follow the drift.
“At the collation centres, INEC Collation Officers openly claimed to have cancelled results from all polling units where there was over-voting without completing the Form EC40G. Then proposed to share the accredited votes between political parties.
“When we refused to partake in the heist, they simply harvested the valid accreditations from these cancelled polling unit (which were more than 90% of all the polling units across the 5 LGAs) and allotted them to the APC, leaving other political parties with zero votes in the cancelled polling units. Basically, after claiming that they cancelled votes for over-voting, they actually gave APC all the actual accreditation from such polling units, irrespective of where these accredited voters cast their votes. If all the results with over-voting were actually cancelled for all parties, there was no way the total remaining votes will exceed 10, 000 in all the 5 LGAs. So, INEC basically allocated accredited figures in polling units where results were cancelled to APC and that is how they emerged – stolen votes.
“I must commend my co-candidates of APGA and Labour Party, Hon. Ifeanyi Eleje and Hon. Linus Okorie for their resilience and scoring legitimate votes just like me. If you put together our votes, there is no way that APC will win if the cancellations were allowed to be out of the figures calculated.”
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