February 03, (THEWILL) – The All Progressive Congress (APC), Chairman in Ebonyi State, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, has described Saturday’s bye-election as transparent, free and fair, assuring that the party’s candidate, Professor Anthony Ani will coast home to victory.
Okoro Emegha, who disclosed this at Edda Local Government Area while reacting to allegations of irregularities from the opposition candidates of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Eleje and Barrister Silas Onu respectively, said the complaints were coming from people who knew they have failed the election.
The Chairman further said that there was a massive turnout during the election.
He said, “By what we have seen in the field, we have ample confidence that Professor Anthony Ani is the next senator. In the entire Ebonyi south, there was nothing like election rigging.
“I have been calling all the quarters and what I got was that I should talk to INEC people to allow the people that have queued to be accredited and vote because of time, because the time was already up for them.
“I told them no that since it is not four o’clock, they should allow them to vote. People turned out massively well. The opposition parties know they are going to fail. If INEC should announce them as winners, there will be no snatching of ballot boxes.
“There will be no vote-buying; there will be no irregularities. So, it is the complaint of a failed person. In the first place, why should we be thinking of ballot box snatching to use it and do what?
“The election that we know we will win 100% plus. When the result is announced, they will tell you all sorts of things, including the death of persons. The election is very transparent.
Meanwhile, Ifeanyi Eleje has said that the election was widely flawed, adding there was a lot of intimidation.
According to him, there is no hope for this country until this trend is curtailed.
He said, “In fact, this is an off-season election. We would imagine that the coverage area is smaller and so they would be better effective in managing the process, but it is flawed. It is completely flawed.
“The conduct is very widely flawed. There is a lot of vote buying, there is a lot of intimidation. In fact, intimidation is the worst. Now for the first time, in recent elections, INEC is telling people to accredit and go away.
“How can you tell people to accredit and go away? What it means is that you are going to use the accreditation details and thumbprint. I have called their EO, but their EO is not picking up her calls. I called the REC and the REC picked up and told me she would call me back. This was over three hours ago. So, it is just a hash, to be honest with you”, he stated.
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