Alex Otti Won Convincingly, Declare Him Governor -Elect – Ferdinand Ekeoma Charge INEC
The tension in Abia state has continued to rise as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is yet to declare the winner of the Saturday, March 18, 2023 Governorship election three days after the election.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, the spokesperson of Dr. Alex Otti campaign council, stated that his principal who is the Labour Party governorship candidate, won the election convincingly and should have been declared governor-elect and issued with a certificate of return a long time ago.
He noted that Alex Otti, with the results announced so far by INEC, is leading with a large margin of about 94,000 votes having won 10 local governments out of the sixteen declared.
Ekeoma tasked INEC to utilise the BVAS which has made their job easy, to know the number of accredited voters in Obingwa Local government area and declare the winner adding that INEC’s data shows that Obingwa has 26,848 accredited voters.
“Dr. Alex Otti won 10 local governments with 94,000 vote margin. contrary to expectations, INEC has not officially declared him the governor elect.
Prior to yesterday, we were informed that INEC staff that were at Obingwa to conduct that election were held hostage on the order of governor Okezie Ikpezu of Abia state, surrounded by thugs and security agents. They were intimidated, humiliated, locked up, held hostage and were not allowed to leave Obingwa even when they want to leave” Ekeoma alleged.
According to him, the INEC officials were later brought to Umuahia without the electoral materials until Monday, March 20, when they were brought in by security agents.
“What we know for a fact is that in Obingwa we had only 26,848 accredited voters on the day of election and we are all aware that the house of assembly and governorship election went on simultaneously both accreditation and voting. There is no difference between what was accredited for the house of assembly election and governorship election.
“what we have in INEC data as number of accredited voters is 26884.
“with the BVAS it is very easy for INEC to go through everything and identify who has won the election and declare him accordingly. The facts before INEC and Nigerians indicate that Alex Otti has won the election convincingly and should naturally have been declared governor elect an issued certificate of return”.
“INEC should without further delay, declare Alex Otti the governor elect and issue him with certificate of return
“INEC should save their name; we do not want to believe that INEC is in any way involved in any plan to subvert the will of Abians; any further delay will give the impression that INEC is not an independent and reliable institution” Ekeoma stated.
