Dissatisfaction has continued to trail the outcome of the April 26 polls held in Delta state as the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and other aggrieved political parties are poised for serious legal fireworks at the Election Petition Tribunal.
The ACN House of Representatives candidate for Ika constituency, Dr. Mrs. Isioma Okobah and its House of Assembly candidate for Ika North East, Hon. Christian Okapambor, have challenged the conduct of the polls which they say was characterized by gross irregularities.
Okpambor who briefed journalists in Asaba yesterday said the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that election was free, fair and credible in Nigeria was truncated in Delta state.
According to him, the House of Assembly election held in the council area on Tuesday, April 26, was characterized with monumental fraud, political irregularities, intimidation, snatching of ballot papers and boxes and beating up of opposition agents.
He said, “in view of the issues raised, we hereby as a political party and candidates reject the results in its entirety.”
He decried the lukewarm attitude of INEC to all the distress calls and petitions forwarded to it while the fraud were being perpetrated, saying, “despite that all our complaints of fraud during the election were turned down by the electoral officers deployed to the area”, he urged the party supporters to remain calm “as we prepare to contest the election at the tribunal.”
While he said the results of the election that declared Prince Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner was fraudulent and do not reflect the wishes of Ika North East Local Government people, he said “the victory was bought for him to compensate him for delivering the Governor (Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan) in the rerun.”
The Ika North East House of Assembly constituency seat is currently being occupied by the incumbent Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Prince Sam Obi, who acted as the governor of the state during the 90 days court ordered rerun.
