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The candidate for the Abia South Senatorial zone under the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Chinedu Onyeizu has said it was wrong for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have declared Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as the winner of Saturday’s senatorial election in Abia State.
He, therefore, rejected the result of the election following what he called manipulative tendencies that characterized the whole election processes. He also noted that his rejection of the result was attributable to the action of the Returning Officer (RO); Prof. Georgina Ugwuanyi, who he said had earlier announced the rescheduling of the election, only to return eight hours later to announce Abaribe as the winner saying she had orders from the above to do so.
“I reject the Abia South Senatorial election held on Saturday in Abia State on two major grounds. First is on account of the fact that the RO, in the early hours of Tuesday, had declared the election inconclusive because 108 polling units had irregularities that were capable of impacting on the total figure. I am quite optimistic that when elections are conducted in those areas, which I know are my stronghold, I will get more votes that would be far bigger than what Abaribe got.
“Secondly, even looking at the result sheet with which the RO declared Abaribe the winner, it is very clear that I scored the highest number of votes cast. According to the figures on that sheet, Abaribe got 38, 506, while I got 43,993 but the RO went ahead to say that Abaribe got 49,000, thereby allocating more than 10,000 votes to him. Where she got the number from or how the number of votes from the six local government areas as shown on that result sheet for Abaribe changed from 38,506 to 49,000 is what I cannot understand.”
