A group of Abia State indigenes and several Americans have protested at the Nigerian Consulate in New York, USA, over what they cited as a “grand, corrupt scheme to violate the actual votes of Abia people.” They called “on the US Department of State and the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately keep an oversight interest concerning the events in Abia State.”

During the protest, staged last weekend, the group claimed to reflect the strong position of the almost 250,000 Nigerians in the greater New York East Coast region who are demanding for accountability, transparency and elections which truly reflect the will of the people.

A statement signed by the spokesman for the group, CC Agujiegbe, said: “We are protesting the continued stay in office of the PDP Governor (Ikpeazu) whose name and claim to the office has long been tainted by presented evidences which show rigging, falsification of results, violence against those who pull against them, manipulation of numbers and votes, etc.”

The group said that it had “major and realistic concerns over the issue that the Ochendo-Ikpeazu-PDP gang started boasting and bragging about their certainty of victory BEFORE the Abia Elections Tribunal gave its initial rulings.” It added: “We are very concerned that the same gang started ‘celebrating’ BEFORE the then yet to be announced rulings of the Abia Elections Tribunal on the senatorial and House of Representative seats because, allegedly, that notorious gang sought to compromise the process. The fact is they got favorable rulings; and with those rulings Ndi Abia are asking more questions about the independence and transparency of both the Tribunal and the notorious IINEC in Abia State.”

Continuing, statement said: “We therefore:

1: call on the elections tribunal to take complete and adequate cognizance of those factors and evidences in order to reach the correct and appropriate conclusion.

2: state our position that based on the number of ACTUAL votes cast in the April 2015 election, Dr. Alex Otti, first class banker and technocrat, should be declared the rightful winner and Governor of Abia State.

3: appeal for the support of New Yorkers who we already know are opposed to the hijacking of the electoral process.

4: we call on the US Department of State and the federal government of Nigeria to immediately keep an oversight interest concerning the events in Abia State.”

The Abia State Election Petition Tribunal on Monday in the state capital, Umuahia, entertained the final/closing arguments by lawyers to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his main rival, Dr. Alex Otti of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). The tribunal has adjurned to prepare its judgement.