The governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC in
last Saturday election in Anambra state, senator Chris Ngige Wednesday
declared that he was not desperate to be governor following alleged
rigging of the poll by some officials of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC.
Addressing reporters in Awka on the inconclusive governorship election
declared by INEC, Ngige said he was not in the contest as a do or die
affair but that he wanted the correct thing to be done by the
electoral body.
” The election was fraught with massive electoral irregularities. The
electoral officers worked in connivance with the INEC to make sure
that electoral materials were delivered late at the polling units in
areas of my strong hold”.
Apart from that, Ngige said the most worrisome aspect was that in some
polling units in areas considered his strong hold, materials were
deposited there without any INEC official to accredit registered
voters for them to vote.
” The most unfortunate was that some students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe
University, NAU were brought in as polling officers with fake NYSC
uniforms against what INEC had told us that corps members would be
drawn from Anambra, Enugu and Delta states”.
Insisting that the poll was flawed ab initio, Ngige said that the
Resident Electoral commissioner, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukogu instead
of taking the electoral materials for the election from the airport
straight to the Central Bank in Awka, he took them, not accompanied by
any of our agents, straight to the commission.
He said there were instances where some police officers were caught on
video camera thump printing for APGA which he said showed the level of
irresponsibility that attended the election.
” I am depressed and sad for my country. I am one of those in the
Senate that said INEC should be given any amount of money to enable
them perform effectively. We have been deceived. Our hopes have been
dashed but I am not desperate to be governor. This election can not be
salvaged because of the number of people that were disenfranchised, who
could not choose the governor of their choice”.