Chinedu Onyeizu, Abia South Senatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, 2023 Presidential/National Assembly elections, has condemned the declaration of Enyinnaya Abaribe, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as winner of the 25th February 2023 senatorial election.
Onyeizu, in an interview with newsmen in Aba, Abia State, Friday, argued that INEC made a mistake that resulted in awarding Abaribe more votes than he got as could be seen on the records of INEC.
He expressed shock that Georgina Ugwuanyi, a professor and Returning Officer changed her mind concerning her earlier announcement that the election was inconclusive.
Ugwuanyi had in the morning of Tuesday announced before party agents that the election was inconclusive hence, the need for a rescheduled election.
She however, returned Tuesday evening to declare the winners in an election earlier declared inconclusive stating that she got calls from Abuja INEC to declare the results without further elections.
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Onyeizu said that despite irregularities that INEC talked about in affected polling units, the figures given to Abaribe were wrong as he was leading with 10, 000 votes.
He said it was shocking and remained an electoral mystery how INEC reduced his scores to 43,903 votes and inflated Abaribe’s to 49, 693 from about 38, 000 when he should be trailing him (Onyeizu).
Onyeizu, who condemned Abaribe’s lawless declaration of himself as winner before INEC pronounced him winner, said that he has rejected the results and will contest it to the end.
He said that his opponents had shown that they are afraid of the rescheduled election, seeing that he was on ground and that the people had chosen LP in all their votes.
“There were issues with a lot of the polling units in Aba North, Aba South and Obingwa local government areas based on the number of registered voters and the number of actual votes cast.
“So, it was obvious that the election was inconclusive and the Returning Officer made a statement two days ago concerning that.
“She stated that the election was inconclusive, as a result of the irregularities experience..
“We were optimistic that INEC would make public the new date for the rescheduled elections, but instead, that they turned around to declare results,†he said.
Onyeizu called on INEC to admit the mistake and announce him winner of the election.
