LG Polls: We will not allow PDP write election results in Government House, says APC

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the Chairman of Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC), Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa to desist from engaging in any act that would truncate the wishes of Abians from counting in the conduct of the December 18 Local Government elections in the state.

This is as the party vows not to allow the PDP write the local government election results in Government House as it was the case in the past.

This was the resolution of the party at the end of an expanded Caucus meeting held at the Olokoro residence of the former Senator representing Abia Central Senatorial District, Senator Chris Adighije in Umuahia South Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking at the event, the Chief Whip of the Senate and former governor of the state, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu affirmed that the party was prepared to go into the local government election with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, stating that APC was confident that it was going to give the PDP good run for their money.

Kalu who said that all that the party was demanding from the Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa led ABSIEC and the Governor of the State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu is a participatory process and election devoid of electoral fraud said “We are prepared for the December 18 local government election in Abia State.

“We (APC) must know who the electoral officers across the 17 local governments are. We don’t want any trouble.

“We want them to sit down with the security agencies until the election is finished. We must also sight all the forms that will be used for the election in all the localities.

“In anywhere you didn’t see the forms, hold the electoral officer until he or she produces the forms, otherwise, ensure that there won’t be any election in such a place.

“We must make sure that the forms will be kept where everybody including security agencies and other parties will see them.

“We are prepared to move forward. We want a participatory democratic process which will out of the control of anybody’s manipulation; a process where the genuine winner will genuinely know that he is a winner while the genuinely loser will know that he genuinely lost.

“Let the beloved Governor of our state and the chairman of his electoral commission put in order to make sure that we are seeing all these documents so that we can be proud people of democracy.

“All those people saying that the results will be written in their homes, the time has come and gone. We are not going to take it. Local government chairman candidates must work hard to earn your winning. Chairman candidates in other parties should go and campaign.

“I have seen so many PDP Local Government Candidates rejoicing that they are already chairmen, we are going to police corner to corner in the three senatorial districts of Abia State. We are not going to allow that rubbish to happen.

“I learnt reliably from the ABSIEC that they haven’t been funded. I call on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to start funding them so that the people can prepare the documents for the election.

“I also gathered that other agencies have not been given money for them to do what they are supposed to do. The governor should release the N3billion that was appropriated by the Abia State House of Assembly.

“No candidate is supposed to pay a dime to ABSIEC. I am not talking as an outsider; I am talking as an insider because I was a governor of the state.

“There is nowhere in the constitution that ABSIEC has the power to disqualify a candidate. Any contradiction between the constitution and any other document, the Nigerian Constitution takes precedent. So, I want ABSIEC to be careful in whatever they are doing.

“We as a party must be ready to go for the election; we are not afraid of anybody and they shouldn’t be afraid of us. We need a participatory democratic process. We don’t want to harass anybody and we don’t want anybody to harass us. Time has gone when they go to houses to harass our members and I am sure that nobody can do it in Abia State of today.

“If they try it, we will match them back. If they attempt to harass us, we will harass them back because there is no need of going to police innocent citizens in their villages or call them out to arrest them on the eve of the election. We are not going to take that plot.”

Speaking, the chairman of the party in the state, Hon. Donatus Nwankpa who said that the party cannot afford to field people who have the credibility to not only stand for an election, but has the will to resist attempts by the ruling party to manipulate the process and truncate the wishes of the Abia electorate.

“The party can no longer continue to produce students of escapism, complainants and those who will continue to go back brutalise and mourning; the party’s primary is a micro exhibition of what is going to happen in the main election.

“The party this time wants to have people who have the capacity to stop people that would want to rig out the party in an election.

“It takes a courageous man like Kalu to put an end to the rigging out of APC candidates in the state by the ruling party by ensuring that the votes the people casted for him counted.

“People should rise up to the occasion and take election as war without bloodshed. It is not about the December LG election, but to fine tune the team to be ready ahead of the 2023 general elections,” said Nwankpa