Abia women, youths, protest results of February 25 elections

Women and youth groups in the Bende local government area of Abia State on Saturday, took to the streets to protest the results of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections to register their rejection of the elections.

The protesters carried placards with different inscriptions like “We can’t be disenfranchised, our votes matter”; “We need another election that will be free and fair”; ”INEC refused to upload our results”, and called for the outright cancellation of the polls, especially in the council’s federal constituency which they claimed was won by the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Frank Chinasa.

The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Ben Kalu, as the winner of the Bende federal constituency with 10,020 votes to defeat Chinasa, who, according to INEC, polled 6,818 votes to come second, while Nnenna Ukaeje of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came third with 3,930 votes.

But the protesters alleged that the result announced by INEC was doctored to favour Kalu and did not reflect the will of the people.

They also claimed that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, received the bulk of the votes from voters in Bende, but were surprised that the number of votes INEC ascribed to Obi was not a true reflection of the votes of the people.

Speaking to journalists during the demonstration, spokesperson of the groups, Chinechetam Mbah, claimed that the “failure of INEC to transmit the results of the election from the various polling units contrary to the commission’s earlier promise was a deliberate ploy to manipulate the outcome of the elections.”

She added that INEC deliberately delayed the arrival of voting materials in most polling units in the stronghold of the LP to disenfranchise its supporters.

READ ALSO:Labour Party’s Onyeizu, rejects INEC’s declaration of Abaribe as winner in Abia South

“The whole electoral process was faulty; materials couldn’t get to all the polling units on time and some of the BVAS was faulty and could not provide optimal performances,”, Mbah said.

“Results were not uploaded immediately after the votes were counted. They claimed there were network issues and they left with both the results and duplicates and uploaded results we suspect to be fake after 24 hours.

“INEC did not provide logistics and transportation for all the polling units and so some polling units in different wards were disenfranchised,” she added.

A protester, Grace Nnamdi from Uzuakoli Ward A, who also spoke during the protest, alleged that INEC took results with BVAS away without announcing winners at the polling units.

“There was no ward collation of results. There was over-voting in a lot of areas,” she alleged.

”They changed our results. It’s better they did not hold any election at all, and in future they should not bother asking us to vote because it’s just a waste of time. Votes don’t yet count in Nigeria,” she added.

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