The All Progressives Congress’ (APC) candidate for Abia Central senatorial district, Samuel Onuigbo, has rejected the results of the February 25th National Assembly Election, claiming that his name and party were omitted in the result sheet.
Briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, South-east Nigeria, Onuigbo said that “he rejected in its totality the figure of 7,997 votes allocated to him and his party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“It is very astonishing that the conduct of last Saturday’s Elections left much to be desired, as INEC failed in its statutory responsibility of ensuring free, fair and credible poll.
“It is disheartening to inform you that INEC failed to include the name of my party on the result sheet for the 2023 Abia Central Senatorial Election.
“Consequently, the documentation of my scores in the election was shambolic.
“This made a mess of your votes for me and left our votes at the mercy of the Presiding Officers who chose to either leave out the result, record it among the invalid or, in rare cases, fabricate the figures,” Onuigbo stated.
He demanded to know why his name was omitted from the result sheet after the INEC had uploaded it on its portal as the APC senatorial candidate on December 22, 2022, following his Court of Appeal victory on November 30, 2022.
“This puzzle should be resolved by INEC and the leadership of my party, APC, which made no effort to correct the anomaly at the appropriate time,” he demanded.
According to Onuigbo, he wrote a complaint letter to the INEC on February 26, but the electoral body failed to rectify it despite the promise to do so.
The two-term legislator displayed before the newsmen, a photocopy of the result sheet for the senatorial election, which he obtained from the INEC, as evidence for his claim.
He said that he was consulting with his attorneys on the appropriate response to the grave omission.
Onuigbo appealed to his supporters to remain peaceful and law-abiding “in the face of the provoking situation.”
Onuigbo who is representing Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency, however, congratulated the President-elect, Bola Tinubu on his victory at the presidential election as well as other winners in the February 25 Elections.
The INEC had on Monday declared Mr Darlington Nwokocha of the Labour Party (LP) the winner of the Abia Central senatorial election.
The Returning Officer, Professor Herbert Udo, had announced that Nwokocha polled 92,116, while Rtd. Col. Augustine Akobundu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) scored 41,447 votes.
He had said that Onuigbo of the APC scored 7,997 votes and Chukwumere Wachukwu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) got 7,395 votes.
Edited by Amaka E. Nliam
