… It’s Sheer Mischief -Ogor
SAN FRANCISCO, October 27, (THEWILL) – Hundreds of members of All Progressives Congress (APC) from Isoko North council area of Delta State have protested against what they called the role of House of Representatives deputy majority leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, in the just concluded council election in the area, accusing him of thuggery and harassment of opposition party members during the election.
The protesters who were dispersed shortly after they took to the streets of Ozoro alleged that leaders of the ruling party in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), connived with security agents and officials of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) to victimise and intimidate opposition as well as rig the election in different parts of their council area.
Specifically, the protesters, led by the APC Isoko North council chairman, Sir Godwin Diwanbor, accused Ogor of sponsoring thugs against member of the opposition party during the election and deprived them of exercising their voting right.
Addressing newsmen shortly after the botched protest, Diwanbor said; “The protest is to let government; both at the federal, state and every authority to know that we are not happy, we reject the election results and any result whatsoever, because of thuggery, the use of arms,shooting, the use of police, standing askance and the use of army to beat up people and even to abduct people.
“In some areas we have ballot papers, but there was no result sheet, like in Okpe-Isoko, it was overwhelming that they were going to lose the place, but the returning officer ran away with the result sheet and so on and so forth.”
The protesters therefore called for the cancellation of the result of the election in their council area, alleging that the results announced from various wards and units were falsified and were not representative of actual events.
But reacting swiftly to the allegations, Ogor denied involvement in any act of violence or stealing of electoral materials as had been alleged, saying he was with the media while he went out to perform his civic duty on Saturday and could not have done anything that would ridicule him or his party as had been alleged by the APC.
Ogor’s aide media who spoke on behalf of his principal, said : “Honorable cast his vote about 2:45pm or so, NTA Asaba and other media houses, went with him. He cast his vote at Ofa unit peacefully, addressed the press, addressed some of the women who were there, of course, some of them were complaining about lateness in arrival of materials.
“The allegation of him snatching a ballot box is pure mischief, as a matter of fact, APC has to accept the fact that they were defeated in the election, going to the public to malign the image of the Honorable Deputy Majority Leader is just sheer mischief.”
