Press Release
We received with deep sobriety the news of the hilarious announcement of the so called winners of the Abia Local government election across the 17 local government areas of the state.
As rightly predicted by majority of Abians that the proposed Abia LGA election was going to be a fraud, the election turned out to be an audacious fraud that left even those who had erroneously thought that the PDP and Abia state government had turned a new leaf, shocked and speechless.
For us, nothing surprised us about the e”lection”, not when a highly partisan person, Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa who openly campaigned for the PDP and her candidates in the 2019 elections in Abia is heading ABSIEC as chairman. Simply put that, Prof. Mkpa has in the most inglorious manner justified the condemnation and outrage that greeted his appointment earlier in the year.
With Prof. Mkpa as the supervisor of the latest electoral impunity, PDP went into the election with the same stone age mindset of an Emperror, and manifested nauseating notoriety aimed at actualizing anti people economic annexation that would pave the way for the consolidation of the rudderless leadership that has retarded development at the grassroots and made Abia a subject of mockery in the comity of states.
The Mkpa led ABSIEC didn’t just trample on the rights of APC candidates and their supporters, it did so with inexplicable viciousness as the commission did not just write results where no elections took place, it also sneaked out and announced winners even in LGAS where it had halted the elections with the joint consent of candidates; what deceit?
While it violently denied the APC Chairmanship candidate his votes and victory in Ukwa East, the commission either by mischief or confusion allocated votes to the party in Ukwa West where it had no candidate.
In Umunneochi and Bende, the APC candidates were outrightly conned by ABSIEC as the commission secretly declared the PDP candidates after deceitfully assuring that the elections were going to be concluded.
The PDP also “miraculously” cruised to victory in Isuikwuato where the party is very unpopular, while it applied violence and brigandage to capture Arochukwu that it can never win in a free and fair contest. Same impunity was witnessed in other LGAS.
The most inhuman and provocative was the swapping of ordinary councillorship results of innocent candidates of APC who won and had their votes openly counted and endorsed by the few ABSIEC election officials who were at the field like in Umuahia South, Arochukwu, Umunneochi etc only for the commission to declare different winners. By this act, the Mkpa led ABSIEC has not only betrayed our youths, insulted their sensibilities and injured their conscience, but the commission has also recklessly made the PDP candidates that were fraudulently declared to believe that electoral fraud is the most effective strategy to become an elected official in Abia, having been assisted to kick start their political career through electoral fraud.
As much as we would not want to dissipate energy dwelling on the atrocious onslaught of the Mkpa led ABSIEC in the so-called election, having known the notorious and anti-democratic antecedents of the PDP led government that appointed Mkpa and his co-conspirators, however, as Abians who are joint owners of the state and her commonwealth, we are duty-bound to stop the extortion of innocent Abians and siphoning off our state funds through subterfuge, hence we demand the following:
1. That the Mkpa led ABSIEC should without further delay refund all fees paid to it by APC candidates before the sham called election since the Mkpa led ABSIEC did not uphold her commitments to the candidates.
2. That the Okezie Ikpeazu led Abia state government and the Mkpa led ABSIEC should without further delay account for how they spent the billions said to have been budgeted for the so-called election.
3. That since it has become clearer to Abians that the Mkpa led ABSIEC functioned like a Ponzi Scheme that targeted the pockets of innocent and vulnerable Abians, their victims shall be left with no option than to take the necessary legal actions and ensure that those involved are brought to justice.
4.That since huge funds were wasted for such a charade in a state where workers and pensioners are being owed months of accumulated salary and pension arrears, we shall be left with the option of approaching the nation’s anti-corruption agencies for intervention in Abia as a way of halting the senseless impunity going on in our state.
5. We urge Governor Ikpeazu to go ahead with the inauguration of these his appointed Transition Committee Chairmen and members from the 17 LGAS as already announced, without the laughable tag of “elected” as they were never elected by Abians.
Signed for and on behalf of
Abia Progressive Watchmen (APW)
Past. Dike Nwankwo
Ferdinand Ekeoma
Maxwell Nwadike
Nwabueze Onwuneme
Barr. Tochukwu Ananaba
Mr Austin Okezie
Dr Gift Nwanaga.
22/12/2020
