Nnamani Declares Self Winner of Enugu Senatorial Election

Former Governor of Enugu State, Senator C, has declared himself winner of last Saturday’s senatorial election in Enugu East, on the platform of the People for Democratic Change, (PDC).

“I want it to be on record that I won the senatorial election. I won the election; I don’t need anybody to declare me winner; I have declared myself winner. We are going to change the politics of Enugu in the next 10 days; it is possible that the PDP will not produce the Governor; it is very possible”, Nnamani added.

Nnamani made the declaration on Monday, while, accompanied by a large crowd of supporters from the six local government areas in the zone, protested at the Michael Okpara Square what he called the “decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), to award victory to the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), candidate, Senator Gilbert Nnaji”.

The supporters carried several placards with inscriptions like Chimaroke won Enugu East senatorial seat; INEC sold Nnamani’s mandate to PDP; Democracy has been killed in Enugu and This injustice will not stand, while they were chanting No Chimaroke, No Gburugburu.

The former governor, who expressed his displeasure with the way INEC colluded with PDP to declare Nnaji as winner of the election, told newsmen that he was convinced that his people elected him and not Nnaji.

“We condemn and reject, in its entirety, the result of the National Assembly election in the Enugu East senatorial district, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.  Documented and provable evidence, indeed, abound on the magnitude of charade and fraud that characterised the process.

“The ruling PDP has, once again, subverted the will of our people, by brazen inducement of INEC officials and security agencies, outright rigging, open vote buying at polling stations, intimidation  and violence.

The PDP and rigging have always been conjoined like Siamese twins. But, never before, has this scale of electoral chicanery been visited so callously on a people so desirous of effecting change through the ballot.

“It is remarkable that the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Enugu State, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, is, true to habit, at the centre of this election scam.

“Some consistent patterns were observed in every local government area on the blatant manipulation of the exercise.  Almost everywhere, partisan INEC officials refused to show the original result sheets to our party polling agents before the commencement of voting as required by law, while in many places our agents were kept at bay to prevent them from their legitimate duty of monitoring the voting process.

“Also, in many wards, there was a deliberate mix-up of result sheets belonging to different polling booths, to create confusion and enable the writing of fake results. But, the most vicious malfeasance witnessed was the apparent instruction to INEC officials to delay voting and the counting of votes into the night.

“This was a ploy to prevent the collation of results in the various ward collation centres, as required by law and, instead, they shifted the collation to local government headquarters, where it was easy to manipulate and re-write the results from a coordinated central location.

Nnamani, however, expressed appreciation to his supporters for the continued goodwill, support and commitment “to the values of our party, as we expressed on March 28, 2015.  We are, particularly, grateful to our party faithful, canvassers and volunteers for your loyalty and courage, even in the face of harassment, intimidation and brutality.

“We urge you to keep calm and resist the urge to take any step that may lead to breakdown of law and order and bloodshed. Our participation in this election is indicative of our strong faith in this democracy and in the rule of law.  We are confident that this grave injustice shall not stand and that victory will, ultimately, be ours,” he told the PDC supporters.