Nwaogu vows to challenge T. A Orji’s victory

On February 23, Abia electorates came out in their numbers to cast their votes for candidates of various parties including the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Abia Central Senatorial District; Senator Nkechi Nwaogu. Though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared incumbent Senator Theodore Ahamefule Orji the winner of the election, the outcome of the process has however been generating so many dust. Senator Nwaogu in this interview bared her mind on the election.

Thank you very much. My name remains Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senatorial Candidate for Abia Central Senatorial District in the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections that took place on February 23 of which I have not been formally informed about the outcome of the senatorial election for Abia Central.

A lot of rumours re being peddled; the local and state radio keep announcing that another person from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared the winner.

I want to formally express rejection to say that if that is correct, that I totally reject the result so purportedly announced. We are yet to receive official information as to who actually won the Abia Central election conducted on the February 23.

I wish to say that the results that we are seeing in the social media are concocted. They are not true reflection of who the people of Abia Central voted for. The results shown in the social media are fake, false and are not genuine. I want to urge the public to disregard that.

I totally reject it and I am calling on INEC to cancel the election and fix a new date for the Abia Central Senatorial District election. If they have announced it, which we do not know, I am also saying that I reject what was announced and I am challenging the result if it has been announced and I will challenge it up to the court

Your party agents were at the polling units, what feeds did you have as to the conduct of the election?

The election that took place on February 23 especially the conduct of the Abia Central Senatorial District was a charade. For instance, in my local government of Osisioma LGA, no election material came in until around 2pm and in less than three hours, INEC officials folded their work. They disenfranchised the Abia Central electorates and we have come to discover that election materials especially the result sheets that they showed were all fake; they were not the real result sheet because they were not carbonized.

They were brought into Abia Central with the connivance of the adhoc workers and INEC officials and all those that participated in concocting such evil activities towards the good people of Abia Central. Other than that, why would there be an uncarbonized result sheets? The procedures were not followed.

INEC stated that unit results will be taken to ward collation centre. And these were flagrantly violated. There were no ward collation; but instead, results were taken straight to INEC headquarters. You can imagine in the case of Abia Central all the agents of all the parties that participated in the election including INEC adhoc staff crowed in the INEC headquarters. It was a mad place.

That gave them the room to do what they did. They didn’t follow the procedure of result collation. That was where they manufactured an uncarbonized result sheets. Agent’s copies were totally blank. Like I said, the materials came in around 2pm which is against the INEC law and this happened in all the six local government areas. Above all, the original result sheet in Isiala Ngwa North and South were given to the Peoples Democratic Party in ward two, six nine and four. They (PDP) had the original result sheets which they wrote in people’s houses.

I feel that the procedure for the conduct of the just concluded National Assembly election in Abia Central Senatorial District election was to say the least, a sham and something that is out of what has always taken place by INEC. I am using this medium to call on INEC and their staff for total investigation as to what happened in Abia Central.

The results were never announced and even in Umuahia North where election could not hold in some areas and they were scheduled to hold on Tuesday, they came in on Sunday morning when people were still in their churches and paraded themselves to have conducted elections with nobody and at the end of the day, they had bumper votes all for the PDP. This goes to show that there were no proper elections in the six local government areas and it calls for cancellation.

You cannot rob Abia Central people of the opportunity to choose who they want to represent them.

Have you written or submitted any petition to INEC over some of the anomalies that you have raised?

Yes, I have. I have as a candidate and we (APC) have as a party. We made a formal complaint to the REC, but he couldn’t give any answer.

What would you do if the decision of INEC didn’t get down well with you?

I do not want them to do what I want them to do. I want them to do the right thing. I want them to be unbiased umpire that they should be. In a situation, on the day of the election, a candidate in the race will go and see the INEC Commissioner in the State in his office on the day of the election privately for quite some time; I do not think that, that is proper.

Was that opportunity given to all candidates?

No, because even an attempt by me to see the REC when we heard that the Abia Central Senatorial candidate of the PDP had gone in there to see him was blocked; I wasn’t given the opportunity to see him.

Election materials were delayed in areas of my stronghold in the six local government areas especially in Osisioma where it was more pronounced that election materials arrive in some areas in Osisioma between 2pm and 3:30pm. For instance, four units in my ward couldn’t even vote. They were totally disenfranchised. No material arrived there till even 4pm.

By what you have just said, can we say that INEC manufactured the number of voters in Osisioma?

Yes, totally, they were manufactured.

From what we are getting from you, announcement of results were done clandestinely.

It was truly done clandestinely in Abia Central because that is where I was and belonged. I also know that in some Senatorial District, there was ward collation as it ought to be.

In all of these, who should we hold accountable?

INEC should be held accountable because if they hadn’t connived with those highest bidders, there wouldn’t be any need for all these issues. After all, some of the security agencies were there. Policemen who were not armed were there, expecting the right thing to be done. But in a situation where there has been compromise and total abuse of procedure, all we had to do is to keep saying the things that I am saying today, that the right procedures weren’t adhered to and it calls for the cancellation of this result. And for the fact that this result was not announced more than 72hrs after the election shows that there is something totally not in order which is very unusual which also calls for cancellation.

And for the way the result of the local governments were clandestinely done with the final senatorial result sheet missing in the evening of the collation and only appeared the next day calls for inquiry into the conduct of the conduct of the senatorial election in Abia Central.