By Sunday Ani
The candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the March 18 governorship elections in Enugu State, Omeje Nnamdi, has rejected the entire results of the electoral process, describing it as an embarrassment to the people of Enugu State, who trooped out in their numbers on that day to exercise their franchise.
This followed the outcome of the party’s State Campaign Council’s meeting in Enugu, where it was resolved that such electoral fraud has never happened in the state.
A statement by Omeje, a copy of which was made available to the Daily Sun, condemned the unquestionable delay for four days on the part of the the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), before it was able to announce the election results, insisting that INEC failed in its duties to conduct free,fair and transparent elections.
He noted that the elections lacked the minimum global standard for acceptance by the people, and that INEC had succeeded in truncating the wishes of Ndi Enugu.
He, however, urged the party faithful and supporters to be calm and law abiding, as his legal team had been instructed to kick-start the legal process to reclaim what he described as a stolen mandate and a charade of democracy.
Part of the statement read: “We reject in its entirety the result of the elections that took place on March 18, 2023. It was marred by intimidation of voters and manipulation of results which is so shameful to the stakeholders in the state. The process of accreditation by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not followed in so many of the polling units, thereby grossly reducing our votes.”
He alleged that INEC was obviously compromised, as it disregarded the provisions of the electoral acts, and went ahead to declare the padded results despite complaints from party agents.
Omeje further insisted that delaying the announcement of the results for a whole four days was a clear indication that INEC had heavily doctored result, thereby thwarting the wishes of people of Enugu State. “I, Omeje Nnamdi, by this media release, register my dissatisfaction over the electoral irregularities activated by heavy financial inducement, and as a political party, the ADP Enugu State make bold to say that our party is determined to deepening democracy in our beloved state, and we shall not allow this manipulation to go unchallenged. We are already assembling our facts together for a lawful action,” he said.
He also took exception to the role of the Enugu State chapter of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), which he described as disgusting and shameful.
He said: “It is highly unethical for a body like IPAC to endorse a candidate, thereby continuing to engage in the support of such manipulation, which they are supposed to kick against. But then, I leave that for posterity to judge them all, but for us, we are challenging the outcome of the election.
“We make bold to call on all well meaning people of the state to stand with us, so that we all join hands to salvage the state and position it for the democratic gain that is the general wish of the masses and trend in global standard of the 21st century.”