SAFAR 25 1431 A.H.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2010.
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Soludo concedes defeat, Ngige rejects results
Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, PDP governorship's candidate in the Feb. 6 Anambra election, has conceded victory to Mr Peter Obi.
However, Dr Chris Ngige, the AC candidate in the race, has rejected the results, announced by INEC in Awka.
Soludo, who addressed newsmen in Awka on Sunday shortly after the announcement of the results, said the election was not a fight between himself and Obi, but about the future of the state.
He, however, faulted the conduct of the election, noting that there were grave flaws that INEC exhibited during the exercise.
``The conduct of the election portended ominous note for the nation's democracy, especially where the voter register was fraudulently manipulated to exclude thousands of voters,'' he noted.
According to him, in most places, the voter register used at the polling booths was different from the one displayed or given to the political parties.
The PDP candidate noted that even people who had verified and confirmed their names during the display of the register, could not find them on the voting day.
``What happened in Anambra is what a friend has described as administrative rigging.
``Hundreds of thousands of people who turned out to vote and with their valid voter cards were disenfranchised. Can this be described as a free and fair election?
``May we all keep our eyes on the ball despite the seeming temporary setback, because I still have abiding faith in the Anambra project.
``I believe that politics is the only veritable avenue at ensuring enduring democracy and development; I have stepped out and will devote the rest of my life to public service," he said.
Soludo noted that the struggle for a better Anambra and Nigeria had only just begun, saying the experience revealed how desperately the nation needed fundamental electoral reforms.
``A situation where INEC determined whether and where voters can exercise their right to vote as in the case of Anambra cannot augur well for our nascent democracy," Soludo said.
Also addressing a news conference in Awka, Ngige described the voter register used by INEC for the election as a plot crafted to disenfranchise the electorate.
``For example, my name and that of my extended Ngige clan of Alor in Idemili Local Government Area, were expunged from the final copy given to us by INEC.
``Given all that was happening, I raised an alarm, pointing out all these to the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra and also to the national chairman of INEC," he said.
Ngige said that the commission promised that the register would be cleaned up and corrected in time before the election.
``INEC had promised that all voters with valid voter cards whose names were dropped from the voter register, shall vote.
``Indeed, my name was found on the manual register and re-entered into the voter register," Ngige said.
He said what the electorate witnessed in the state on Saturday was the reverse.
The governorship candidate claimed that INEC neither cleaned up the register as promised, nor provided the manual back-up register to allow voting by people with valid voter cards, whose names did not appear in the register.
According to him, a total of 1.8 million are registered voters in the state but less than 10 per cent found their names and were allowed to vote.
``The others holding voter cards whose names were removed were disenfranchised and they are over 90 per cent.
``This list includes my 98 year-old father, Dr Alex Ekwueme, a former vice-president as well as a host of other prominent and lowly placed Ndi Anambra," he said.
Ngige also claimed that his voting strength was purged, while Obi's voting strength was shored up and inflated in Agulu, Agulueze Chukwu and indeed, the entire Anaocha localgovernment area.
``We consider this election as a complete sham and a fraudulent scheme to return Obi at all cost.
``Overall, we reject the whole electoral process that threw up today's winner and reject unequivocally the result that declared Obi as the winner by INEC,''Ngige said.
NAN reports that Gov. Peter Obi, won the election, while Ngige, a former governor of the state, was second.
PDP Candidate Chukwuma Soludo, who was earlier considered a heavy weight before the elections, came third.
