Coalition of Civil Society Groups in Abia State (CCSGA) in collaboration with Civic International, have called on National Assembly to enact laws to outlaw the decamping or withdrawal of aspirants few hours to the primary elections.
In a statement jointly signed by Mr. Johnson Kalu and Mr. Emmanuel Usoro Iniobong, on the just concluded People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Guber primary election held on 25th of May 2022 at Umuahia, Abia State, they frowned at the decamping of aspirants few hours to primary elections to usurp other political parties, describing it as an ugly development.
The group who disclosed that the ugly trend would negatively affect Nigeria democracy, urged Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judiciary to assist to build a strong democracy that will ensure an enviable process in the development of the country by reviewing electoral laws and guidelines for elections.
They commended Abia PDP stakeholders for the hitch-free guber primaries, maintaining that the exercise was peaceful, free of any rancor, while other aspirants that withdrew lately from the race were also voted for by the delegates.
The Head of the Electoral Committee and the immediate past governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Ayo Fayose, had declared Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne as the winner of the election, having scored the highest vote cast of 467.
In his analysis, the former Governor, revealed that the total number of the ballot papers was 700 while the total number of votes cast was 554 with eight void votes, totaling 546 valid votes and 146 unused ballot papers.
Information gathered revealed that the counting of votes commenced immediately after voting with all the ballot boxes emptied into a big basket and the votes were sorted out by the Electoral Committee. Agents of the aspirants were allowed to hold the ballot papers that have the votes of their principals.
The result was as follows: · Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe- 5 · Hon. Sampson Orji- 4 · Engr. Enyinnaya Nwafor- 5 · Rt. Hon. Ude Oko Chukwu- 6 · Sen. Emma Nwaka- 4 · Chief Ncheta Omerekpe- 3 · Prof. Gregory Ibe- 2 · Mrs. Ezinwanyi Ngozi Jonah- 5 · Mayor Lucky Ibekwe- 45 · Prof. Uche Eleazar Ikonne- 467 · Void votes- 8 Total – 554
In his acceptance speech, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne maintained that he will not fail Abians as Governor.
In his words: “To whom much is given, much is expected”. He thanked the delegates, the entire Abians and the Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu for aligning with the will of God in his emergence as the PDP gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 elections.
