Enugu Guber: Group Faults Alleged Reduction of PDP Votes in Nkanu East

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

A pro-democracy group, Enugu Good Governance Group (E-3G), in Enugu State has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for allegedly reducing the votes polled by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Mbah, in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state by 13,394 votes.

The group also rejected the 30,295 votes

credited to the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the March 18 governorship election, Chijioke Edeoga, in Nsukka LGA, describing it as “a bogus product of a highly militarised, flawed and rigged process.”

In a statement issued yesterday by its National Coordinator, Odinaka Okechukwu, the group said it was surprising why the INEC decided to retain the results of Nsukka LGA, which it alleged was padded to give the candidate of the Labour Party, Edeoga,, undue advantage.

The group equally condemned what it described as grave electoral fraud in Isi-Uzo where it alleged that security agents aided Edeoga to rig the election in Eha-Amufu ward III.

It alleged that ballot papers were hijacked and allegedly thumb-printed in the house of Chief Sunday Edeoga (known as Nkpume), adding also that in Isi-Uzo, “INEC ad-hoc staff were equally abducted into the bush where results were changed to give Edeoga victory in the LGA.

 “It is an open secret that the process was highly militarised against the supporters and sympathisers of other political parties, as LP supporters had a field day rigging the entire process such that the 17,000 votes earlier polled by Edeoga suddenly mutated to 30,294 votes, while the total number of votes was put at 45,476.”

The group further alleged that the ‘magic’ was largely achieved by inflating the votes of four Wards namely: Obukpa, Ihe, Nkpunano, and Owerre/Umuoyo to 12,779, which is the total vote of a LGA on a good day.

It called on INEC to also review the result of Isi-Uzo, the local government area of the LP candidate in the election, which it alleged was rewritten at gunpoint.

“Edeoga and his party turned Isi-Uzo to a war zone, using security agents to hijack election materials after arresting their perceived political opponents,” the group alleged.