The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned that it will not accept the results of today’s governorship election in Anambra State unless there is voting in all local governments areas, especially in the party’s strongholds of Idemili North and South, as well as Awka South. In a statement issued in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its “apparently-contrived logistics nightmare” that has left thousands of voters unable to exercise their franchise, and demanded the immediate removal of the “incompetent and conniving” Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu.

APC said it was totally astonished to learn that INEC has confirmed that materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, have been hijacked, without saying who hijacked the ballot papers and why, and without explaining why the materials meant for strongholds of the All Peoples Grand Alliance and the Peoples Democratic Party were not hijacked. Equally astonishing, the party said, is the fact that the voter registers for Idemili South, the direct Local Government of the APC candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, did not contain the names of voters in the local government, despite the assurances of INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega. Hear Mohammed: “Before the election, political parties were given voter’s registers that largely contained the names of most voters. However, about four days to the election, Prof. Jega said at an interactive stakeholders forum that there were problems with the registers which would be rectified before the election.

“However, when the supposedly-corrected registers were brought back, most of the authentic names in them have disappeared, without explanation.”

APC said it also complained about the fact that Prof Onukogu was very partial and unprofessional when he conducted the 2011 election.

“In 2011, when Prof. Onukogu conducted the general elections in the state, he was very partial. During the Onitsha South 2 House of Assembly constituency and Idemili South House of Assembly polls, he declared the results of both inconclusive, only for him to announce the results at 12 midnight.

“After we challenged the results in court and a rerun was ordered, we won both constituencies. We subsequently petitioned INEC and the Commission assured us that the same person will not be allowed to conduct subsequent election. Alas, he was left in place to do another damage to INEC as an institution through his glaring incompetence and partiality, which have seriously affected the credibility of this governorship election,” the party said.

•Photo shows APC spokesman Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

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