INEC Lost Control Of Anambra-Central  Elections — Victor Umeh 

Raymond Ozoji, Awka

The incumbent senator representing Anambra-central senatorial district at the national assembly and APGA senatorial candidate in the 2019 national assembly elections Chief Victor Umeh has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lost control of Anambra-central senatorial elections due to what he termed gross irregularities that marred the entire electoral process in the zone.

Umeh who spoke with journalists in Aguluzigbo Anaocha local government area of Anambra state on Thursday, stated that the elections in Anambra-central should be repeated because in some places in the zone people allegedly brought hoodlums in lorries to vote unchallenged by security agents and the commission adding that at Nri community in Anaocha, thugs were brought in to vote and he was reliably informed about the development. He said he came to the area and the miscreants began to throw stones at him and he scampered for safety.

He said that for INEC to involve the police to assist it in getting purported duplicate results clearly showed that INEC failed in the conduct of the national assembly elections for Anambra-central senatorial zone. He said the electoral commission should declare results with original copy of results sheet and not duplicate copies of results facilitated by security agents, adding that INEC should accept that the election was marred by irregularities, violence and fradulent activities.

The senator maintained that if there were irregularities, the electoral umpire should be able to cancel the elections and reconduct it stressing that violence marred the exercise. In Obosi, 15 polling units were cancelled; as Umeh demanded that Oba ward 2 and some other places affected in the zone including all the places the card readers didn’t function effectively should be cancelled.

He said his teeming supporters and constituents were hugely disappointed about the way and manner in which the exercise was conducted. He noted that there was voter intimidation, and that people were told to vote for a particular political party and voters were harassed everywhere in the zone, stressing that Anambra-central senatorial election was not credibly conducted.