Gov candidate, stakeholders want March 28 elections cancelled

The Labour Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Edward Nkwegu, has called for a cancellation of Saturday’s election in Ebonyi State, saying that many eligible voters were disenfranchised during the exercise.

Nkwegu lamented that the number of those accredited by the card readers were lesser than those not accepted by the machines.

“The most disturbing part is that only five incident forms were provided in the polling booth where I voted, while about 200 persons failed the accreditation by the card reader. So how are the rest of the people going to fill the forms?

“It would be proper if the elections were cancelled in areas where there were very severe cases of disenfranchised voters,” he said.

The Ebonyi LP governorship candidate expressed worry that the election may witness a large number of disenfranchised voters in other parts of the country.

Nkwegu, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to go ahead with the card readers but to work “assiduously” to ensure that the challenges were solved before April 11 governorship elections.

Meanwhile, political stakeholders in the state have alleged sabotage by the INEC in the distribution of election materials.

Commissioner of Education in the state, Chief Ndubisi Chibueze-Agbo, said that the INEC officials were supposed to arrive in Ohaukwu Local Government Area (Ebonyi North) zone by Friday evening, but they failed to do so.

“The electoral materials had not arrived my polling unit for instance, as at 10.am (Saturday) and the INEC officials brought a ‘GP tank’ on Friday instead of personnel and materials,” he said.

Chibueze-Agbo said he was suspecting sabotage from INEC. He said, “The main intention was to disenfranchise Ohaukwu people.”

Labour Party senatorial candidate for Ebonyi North zone, Chief Peter Oge-Ali, noted that voting materials brought to the area were mixed.

“Voting and result sheets were taken to areas they were not meant to be, and this is a serious sabotage from INEC,” Oge-Ali said.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Senator Anthony Agbo, said that he was ready to take the matter to court.