Following the unconfirmed complains that emanated from the Akwa Ibom State governorship and state House of Assembly elections, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of fraud.
The Nation reports that the ex-minister, Chief Don Etiebet, on Tuesday in his Abuja home, said INEC committed electoral fraud in Akwa Ibom because guber and state house of assembly polls never held.
Etiebet, who expressed shock that the electoral umpire announced results from the state, supported his claim by challenging INEC on why the results of the House of Assembly elections have not been announced more than three days after the supposed conclusion of the polls.
The APC chieftain, who gave graphic details of what happened in the state during the governorship election, said he did not know that the results for the House of Assembly elections had been released by the INEC.
“As I am talking to you now, Tuesday, the 14th day of April, 2015 at about 4.30pm, there has been no announcement of any result of the state House of Assembly results. These ought to be the results to be announced first at the different state constituency headquarters, usually the local government areas INEC offices. But none took place there. I can prove this from the experience in my local government where the Returning Officer said he was recalled to INEC office and would not be the one to announce the results in my local government.
The text of communication between him and I can attest to this and up till now, no result of the winner of the House of Assembly from my local government has been announced.
If the results of the House of Assembly elections which were supposed to be released at the local government level have not been announced three days after the election, where did they get the figures they announced for the governorship? The fact that three days after the elections, results of the state House of Assembly elections have not been announced is an indication that election did not take place in the state. They just cooked up figures.
They are working from top to bottom and that is why it is taking them a long time to announce the results because they have to work out how to distribute the figures they cooked up to the various local government and polling units,” he said.
Etiebet, however, called for the cancellation of the governorship election, wondered what more information and activity INEC wants to prove that the elections of April 11, 2015, were not conducted according to the approved guideline and regulations.
The former oil minister further challenged the state chapter of the INEC, the state Governor, Godswill Akpabio to show the world the results of the various polling units and the House of Assembly results.
“They should tell us where and when they carried out the collation of the governorship election results before the announcement. They should show the world any footage of television recordings of the exercise in INEC headquarters or any other approved place for the collation and to say why there was no voting, no counting of ballots, no announcement and the pasting of the results at the polling units,” he said.
Etiebet while expressing anger on the alleged role played by the officials of the electoral commission described it as ‘manipulation of the electoral process in his state.’
He challenged the electoral umpire to explain why there was no collation of the polling units’ results at ward centres and at the local government INEC headquarters.
According to him, at about 10pm on April 11, he personally led the APC governorship candidate, Obong Umanah Okon Umanah, state agents and other leaders of the party to INEC headquarters in the state but met the gates locked.
Etiebet therefore questioned why the INEC office should be locked on an Election Day.
“Where did INEC get the scores that made up the governorship results from? The governorship score is supposed to be the summation of the 31 local government area results. But since these have not been announced till now, what is the efficacy of the governorship results announced? INEC should not allow itself to be sucked into this scam for their integrity sake and so should be honourable enough to cancel the announced governorship result because there is no basis for that result,” Etiebet said.
The APC chieftain revealed that he had reported to security agents plots by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to burn the INEC office in Uyo to cover up the fraud of spurious results by destroying the ballot papers and blame it on the APC.
Etiebet also call on the international community and local authorities to look into the deliberate and orchestrated human right violations of the Akpabio’s administration that deprived eligible voters their civic right as well as the killing of innocent voters.
Also, the European Union Election Observation Mission observers have identified “severe problems” with the elections conducted in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states urging the INEC to investigate them.
No comments:
Post a Comment