Why I reported Abia Returning Officer, Nnenna Oti To INEC – Ikpeazu
Still addressing post-election matters, the Abia state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has revealed that he reported the state Returning Officer, Professor Mrs Nnenna Oti, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), before the commencement of the governorship election.
Ikpeazu while speaking on Thursday night in an interaction with Channels TV said he presumed that the Returning Officer would be biased when he discovered that she bears the same surname with the Labour Party candidate, Dr. Alex Otti who is now the governor-elect.
The governor further stated that he reported his fears to INEC who assured him that there was no need to entertain fear as the Professor had been profiled.
He denied having knowledge of Professor Oti’s claims of being intimidated, threatened and offered bribe to upturn the mandate of Abians.
“This is very unfortunate. I have not met that professor and I am shocked because in the first place, if she is a professor, she doesn’t even have the capacity to manipulate results because these are results that emanated from the units, collated at the wards, collated at the local governments and brought for her to just add them up and announce. I’ve not met her before; I’ve not spoken to her. If I have met her, if I have spoken to her, let her come to the public and declare so. So, I am shocked that she is making a big noise out of nothing”.
“At some point when I saw the coincidence in name and traced a little bit of her background, I complained to INEC that this lady was not going to be fair but they assured me that they had profiled her. I am still shocked. What she has portrayed in the aftermath of her service or stewardship in Abia indicates the fact that she is visibly happy with what she did. Her level of bias in that regard could be placed in favour of a party. She has portrayed that she had something at the back of her mind before she came,” Ikpeazu said.
