The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu state said its supporters boycotted the last Saturday election to protest the curious removal of the name of its governorship candidate Senator Ayogu Eze from the list of governorship candidates a few days to the election.
The Ayogu Eze Campaign Organisation media director Mr Ezirigwe said in statement in Abuja Wednesday that the senator’s name was not restored even after the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal had ordered that his name be restored on the list.
“Though the Independent National Electoral Commission was served the court order at 5pm on March 7, 2019, Eze’s name was not on that list even by the time the polls closed at 2pm on Saturday March 9, 2019”, the spokesman said.
“Why didn’t INEC cancel and reschedule the election when it found out it had unwittingly changed the rule of the game just before the game started by advertising to our supporters and the whole world that our principal was no longer in the race and never took any steps to reverse that impression even after the court had asked it do so?”
“By not putting back the name on the portal and other relevant documents for the election as ordered by a competent court of law, INEC had inadvertently descended into the arena of partisanship by taking actions that tended to give the impression that it was no longer impartial,” he said.
Further, he said no election took place in Enugu as the election was roundly boycotted by the people who had yearned for change but were denied the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice by some forces that colluded with the INEC to change the rule of the game while the game was underway.
Ezirigwe therefore warned INEC not to tamper with the card reader outputs from that election, on the account that a proper query of the card readers will prove his assertion that no election took place in Enugu State.
“We reject those phantom figures generated from the mills of master riggers and displayed as results of an election where the voter turnout was less than five per cent. We’ll take all legitimate steps to ensure that this fraud does not see the light of day,” he said.
