The Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), on Thursday, proceeded to the election tribunal sitting in Enugu to challenge Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) victory in Enugu South Urban State Constituency in Enugu State.

The party’s candidate for Enugu South Urban Constituency, Mr. Nonso Nnamani, told newsmen in Enugu that the election was flawed by a lot of irregularities and frauds.

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mr. Sam Ngene, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Enugu South Urban State Constituency winner in the March 9 State Assembly election held in Enugu State.

Ngene polled 5,119 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nnamani, who got 525 votes, and Mr. Chukwuebuka Ani of the Young Peoples Party (YPP), who came third with 145 votes.

Nnamani noted that his party was going to the tribunal with a lot of documented evidence of manipulation of the electoral process and fraud during the election.

“The election was not free and fair. There were a lot of malpractices on the side of PDP and on the side of INEC staff in polling units. And most of those malpractices are documented by us because during the election we had agents in all the polling units with the constituency.

“So, we made sure that it is not only about watching our votes, but documenting the whole process. We have recorded evidences, we have pictures, and we have people who are willing to testify.

“We have documented incidences where our agents were molested or chased out of the polling units for them not to monitor what is going on,” he said.

Nnamani alleged that the police on duty, ‘All the touts and who-is-who in the street’ were siding the ruling party (PDP) in the state; adding that these things done were not fair to us (ANN).

“I believe that if it is not a fair process is affecting the people; the people have a choice, they have a mandate and we sincerely believe they had given us (ANN) their mandate.

“And (because) the electoral process was not free, fair and transparent, it had affected us (ANN) not taking the mandate given to us by the people.

“So, we are seeking this redress through the court (electoral tribunal) since it is the best way to reclaim our people-given mandate back,” he said.

He noted that ANN was positioned to retrieve the ‘stolen mandate’ from the PDP at the tribunal; since the party worked for it and had programmes and projects that endeared the people of the constituency to the party.

“During the campaigns, we spoke the language of the people and marshaled out their needs and pragmatic ways to solving them; while vast majority of the people believed in our party’s manifesto.”

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