By Uche Nwanne
The Action Alliance (AA) in Enugu State has rejected the outcome of the governorship election held on Saturday, March 18, 2023 in the state.
Mr Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner of the election.
He defeated Mr Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP) with a margin of about 3,474 votes.
The AA, which had 330 votes had Mr Daniel Ogbe as its candidate.
In a statement made available to journalists on Friday, the State Chairman of AA, Mr. Ogbonna Festus Okafor, said the party had rejected the outcome of the polls in its entirety.
Okafor said that the party was not satisfied with the electoral process, including what he called “dramatic announcement of Mr. Peter Mbah of the PDP as the winner.”
He claimed that, “the process that threw Peter Mbah up as the winner of the election is flawed; there are obvious irregularities that cannot be swept under the carpet.
“Our agents and other independent observers reported that there was wild scale rigging, ballot box snatching, thuggery, intimidation of opposition political parties during the polls.
“We also find it curious that despite over-voting in many polling units, the INEC went ahead to announce Peter Mbah as a winner without reviewing the date in its IREV and BVAS.
“Having said this, the Action Alliance rejects the dramatic announcement of Peter Mbah of the PDP as the winner of the election. We had asked the returning officer to explain how the commission got the over 16, 000 votes allocated to Peter Mbah from Nkanu East, but it never offered that explanation.”
Okafor said that the party was left with no other option than to challenge the outcome of the polls in the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
