ABIA NORTH: Mao Ohuabunwa Accuses INEC Of Deceit, Disenfranchisement, Rejects Declaration Of Sen. Orji

Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Abia North Senatorial district, has rejected the result which declared Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, his APC counterpart as the winner of the Saturday, February 25, 2023 senatorial election citing loopholes in the entire electoral process.

Ohuabunwa while addressing the media on Tuesday, accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deceiving and disenfranchising the people who trooped out to cast their votes but met the absence of INEC officials and electoral materials at various polling units in some Local government areas that make up Abia North.

According to Ohuabunwa, INEC officials did not arrive polling units until 3pm after he voluntarily mobilised vehicles to move electoral materials from the Local Government headquarters to polling units. He noted that election process started by 4pm and stretched till 12 midnight as against 8AM-2PM which INEC had fixed.

"in most of the places, they bypassed BVAS in collation of results, they did collation without reference to BVAS; it was after they announced at the Local Government that they started transmitting the next day after collating manually which is in contravention of electoral Act and INEC guidelines".

He stated that election did not take place in 3 wards in Ohafia because there were no materials nor INEC officials.

Polling units he cited where election did not hold in Ohafia include; Nkporo (4 units); Okanu ward (27 units); Isiama (48 units); and Agboji (11 units).

Those in Arochukwu are; ward 3 (8 units); Ohaeke Abam, Eluoha (2) and Ututu (2).

"These people were disenfranchised and INEC told us that we will do a supplementary on Sunday, after awhile they said it will hold on Monday. Monday morning again, we came out only to our dismay, we heard that result has been announced when over 100 units with more than 60,000 votes" Ohuabunwa lamented.

"I am shocked and surprised. For me, I am rejecting that result. In Bende, BVAS was bypassed to announce the result" he continued.

He blamed INEC for deceiving the people with an assurance that BVAS will mark an end to election result riging, adding that;

"while we were busy campaigning, they were busy perfecting their plot on how to rig this election and this is the worst ever I have seen."

He called on INEC to cancel the election and order for a fresh election in Abia North. He also charged the Commission to query the Resident Electoral Commissioner, noting that his action "was a pure case of inducement".

"Election was still ongoing in four wards in Ohafia; ten units in Arochukwu when the result was announced. INEC is leading us to a road that leads to no where

"We trusted the process and INEC, unfortunately, they didn't use the BVAS" he added.

Ohuabunwa mentioned that he has petitioned INEC asking the electoral Body to review the election process and result as allowed by the provisions of the Electoral Act. He added that if INEC fails to heed to his review request after 7-days as stipulated in the Act, he will have no other option than to approach a law court.