A pro-democracy group under the aegis of Enugu Good Governance Group, E-3G, has rejected the votes credited to the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the March 18 governorship election, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, in Nsukka LGA, describing it as “a bogus product of a highly militarised, flawed, and rigged process.”

The group faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for reducing the votes polled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr Peter Mbah, in Nkanu East LGA by 13,394 votes, while retaining the results of Nsukka LGA, which it said was padded to give the LP undue advantage.

It wondered how four wards alone were able to record over 12,000 votes on a day that massive voter apathy was recorded in Nsukka LGA.

The E-3G made the observations in a statement issued in Enugu on Monday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Odinaka Okechukwu.

The group equally condemned what it described as grave electoral fraud in Isi-Uzo where it alleged that security agents aided Edeoga to rig the election in Eha-Amufu ward III.

It said ballot papers were hijacked and allegedly thumb-printed in the house of Chief Sunday Edeoga (known as Nkpume), adding also that In Isi-Uzo, INEC ad-hoc staff were equally abducted into the bush where results were changed to give Edeoga victory in the LGA.

“The Enugu Good Governance Group wishes to avert the attention of the INEC to the massive rigging that marred the March 18 governorship election in Nsukka LGA. It is an open secret that the process was highly militarilised against the supporters and sympathisers of other political parties, as LP party supporters had a field day rigging the entire process such that the 17,000 votes earlier polled by Edeoga suddenly mutated to 30,294 votes, while the total number of votes was put at 45,476.

“This magic was largely achieved by inflating the votes of four Wards, namely, Obukpa, Ihe, Nkpunano, and Owerre/Umuoyo to 12,779, which is the total vote of a whole LGA on a good day. Is it not striking that Ihe and Nkpunano Wards generated a uniform number of 3,410 votes, respectively?

“Again, it is claimed that the nine polling units inside the University of Nigeria Nsukka alone recorded well over 17,000 votes while students, who constitute the voting populations in those polling units, were on election break.

“Meanwhile, the 18th March online edition of Sun Newspaper, entitled “Enugu Polls: Law Voter Turnout in Nsukka”, showed a huge voter apathy. So, what the LP simply did was to use security agents to block the entrances into the UNN and execute the electoral heist,” E-3G stated.

The group equally enjoined INEC to review the result of Isi-Uzo LGA, which it said was “rewritten at gunpoint”.

“Chijioke Edeoga and his Labour Party turned Isi-Uzo to a war zone, using security agents to hijack election materials after arresting their perceived political opponents. The electoral robbery was worst in Eha-Amufu Ward III, Mgbuji where it was gathered that Chijioke Edeoga and one Eric Ebeh planned to cook up over 35, 000 votes out of the about 85, 000 voter population in Isi-Uzo, but the Council Chairman, Hon. Obeagu, effectively checkmated and countered their plans.

“When they could still not win, they abducted the SPO in Umualor and others into the bush where the results were rewritten to give Edoega over 12,000 votes.

“We, therefore, call on the INEC to look into the result of Edeoga’s Ward, Eha Ward III, in particular where the result was padded to the tune of about 5,000 votes,” E-3G stated.

The group, therefore, wondered why the results of LGAs like Isi-Uzo, Nsukka, Igboeze South, Igboeze North, Udenu, and Igbo-Etiti etc where massive electoral fraud was allegedly foisted on the people would stand while that of Nkanu East, where the people trooped out en masse to vote for their son would be deducted.

The statement added: “The worst lies being told about the Enugu gubernatorial election is Nkanu East result are about the number of accredited voters and the figures on I-REV. Instructively, contrary to claims, Nkanu East has 82,959 registered voters, while 33,156 voters were accredited by BVAS. So, we wonder how 30,350 votes secured by any party could be deducted as an over-voting. INEC has more explanations to make.” (Daily Independent)

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