INEC releases Abia results amidst protests, calls for cancellation

Posted by admin Abia, Elections 2011, State News Monday, April 11th, 2011

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the Abia State results declaring the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner in the three senatorial seats and the seven federal constituencies where elections were said to have taken place.

The INEC had given an order that there would not be any election in Isiala Ngwa North and South after the botched April 2 elections.
Senator Chukwumereije of Abia North was announced to have retained his seat by coming ahead of his closest rivalry and former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu with 83,206 votes against 34,188 votes.

Incumbent Senators of Abia Central and Abia South, Mrs. Nkechi Nwogu and Enyinnaya Abaribe, respectively also retained their seats. Nwogu scored 143,603 votes to defeat Kelvin Ugbaja of PPA who scored 17,123. Abaribe polled 90,773 votes to beat his APGA closest challenger, Anyim Nyerere who scored 17,711 votes.
Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency has a new face in the person of Mr. Oluchi Ibeji of the PDP. The incumbent, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka is running for the governorship of the state on the ticket of Labour Party (LP).

In Aba North/South Federal Constituency, a member of the state House of Assembly, Chief Uzor Azubuike was declared winner with 21,787 beating the incumbent, Nnanna Uzor Kalu, the younger brother of Orji Uzor Kalu who scored 4,459. Mrs. Nkiruka Onyejiocha of PDP retained her seat with 23,868 votes.
Mr. Uzoma Abonta also retained his Ukwa/West with a vote of 20,066 while Eziuche

Ubani also retained his seat. Nnenna Ukaeje of Bende Federal Constituency renewed her mandate with 18,339 votes. In Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency, Mr. Aor Arusi of PDP also retained his seat.
Meanwhile, there have been statewide protests over the Assembly elections as people from different parts of the state have been calling for its cancellation, alleging fraud, intimidation and outright writing of results in place of election by members of the PDP in the state.

The first persons to make the call while the exercise was supposed to be going on were the youths of Umunneochi, led by one Ndu Emerieonwu Nwadim, who said materials did not get to the supposed polling units. “As at 4.30 pm, materials have not gotten to this place and the youths have taken to the streets chanting protest songs and calling for the cancellation of what was supposed to be an election, which never was. At Zone 2 Amuda, we were not given any material and we have been reliably informed that some people are writing the results in the house of a PDP chieftain.

This is outright robbery. If we are no longer in Abia, they should tell us. Why should a group of people gather together to decide the fate of the people of Umunneochi? There is no election here. We are protesting today because we know that tomorrow, they will come out with results that elections were held here,” Nwadim said.

In Isuikwuato, Bende, Igbere and Ohafia, hundreds of voters who turned out during the National Assembly polls could not vote due to the omission of their names in the INEC register. In most polling centers, turn out of voters was very low. There were skirmishes in Ahaba Ward I and II, Ovim and Isiala Ward III where students from Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, caused panic. The situation was the same at the Ogoro Amaokwe polling unit in Ogudu Asa Ward where over 60 percent of eligible voters could not find their names in the register. The LP senatorial candidate for Abia North, Chief Chukwuemeka Okorougo was among eligible voters whose names were not found on the INEC voters’ register.

Reacting, Okorougo said he felt disenfranchised just like other voters that had turned out to vote. He said it was disheartening that a candidate standing for election could not see his name on the INEC register. “What has happened has left room for rigging because it will be difficult to control it,” he said.
He said the surprising thing was that those names that were missing from the register were spotted during the April 2 botched polls. Okorougo alleged that some pages of the voters’ register in some of those wards were ripped off.

Ojukwu noted that security was not beefed up in some hinterlands, adding that only one female police officer was posted to Isiala Ward III. When contacted, Mrs. Nkechi Okpo, assistant electoral officer at the INEC Collation Center in the area said all the materials needed in the conduct of the polls were delivered and that she could not explain why some names were missing from the register.

In another development, opposition political parties in Abia State have called on the INEC to cancel the election held last, alleging series of military, police and other security intimidations against them by the government in power. The proup, which addressed journalists in Aba, was represented by the governorship candidates of ACN, Prince Paul Ikonne, PPA, Chris Akomas, CPN, Onyeaghala Obioma and ANPP, Bob Ogu, who jointly called for the cancellation of the election in the state.

The ANPP candidate, Ogu, said there was no election in the entire Aba Zone, as there were no result sheets to record the election results. “The whole thing was a sham; no materials and where they were, someone took them away into their houses to thumbprint.”

The governorship candidate of the CPN, Rev. Obioma Onyeaghala described the election as a drama being played by members of the PDP in the state, stressing that in Umuahia North about 780 voters in his ward registered, while the list the INEC brought was for only 360 voters.wp_posts