The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Saturday's Senatorial by-election in Enugu North, Enugu State, Dr. Nestor Ezeme, has rejected the outcome announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and vowed to challenge the result in court. INEC declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ikeje Asogwa, as the winner early Sunday morning at the INEC office in Nsukka.
INEC Declares APC Winner with Landslide Victory
The Returning Officer, Professor Christian Ezeibe, announced that Asogwa secured 162,360 votes, defeating Ezeme who garnered only 9,299 votes. The margin of victory was over 153,000 votes, indicating a decisive win for the APC candidate across the six local government areas of the Enugu North Senatorial District.
Reacting to the outcome, the Director of Media and Strategy Communication for the Ikeje Asogwa Campaign Organisation, Samson Ezea, described the victory as a clear reflection of the widespread support enjoyed by the APC candidate. He stated that the result mirrored the will of the people in the district.
PDP Alleges Manipulation and Intimidation
However, Ezeme strongly kicked against the results, alleging that they were a product of "pure" manipulation and did not reflect the actual voting by the people of the zone. “We reject it completely. I am going to challenge the result in court. We will recover the mandate from the court because it was freely given to us by the people of the zone,” he stated.
Ezeme further alleged that the ruling party had created violence and electoral manipulation during the election in order to churn out any result in favour of the party. He claimed that the electoral process was undermined by intimidation and interference from government officials. “Virtually in all the local governments, you see local government chairmen, commissioners and other government officials moving from one polling unit to another trying to manipulate the system,” he alleged.
Violence at Polling Unit, PDP Chairman Attacked
Ezeme also alleged that violence erupted at Ofu Ogu Polling Unit in Ovoko Ward, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area, where his party chairman was attacked. According to him, the chairman sustained severe injuries and was receiving treatment in hospital following the incident. “My party chairman is so critical in the hospital that I fear for his life,” he said, alleging that armed men invaded the polling unit, attacked party members and disrupted voting. He further claimed that motorcycles belonging to PDP supporters were burnt during the attack and warned that despite what he described as a clear lead for his party at polling units, the outcome could still be altered during collation.
Coalition of Political Parties Describes Exercise as Peaceful
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Registered Political Parties (CRPP) in Enugu State described the exercise as “largely peaceful”, saying the deployment of forged party agent tags by one of the political parties did not affect the exercise. Chairman of the Coalition, Dr. Afam Ani, acknowledged an initial delay in the deployment of election materials at one distribution centre following disagreements among some party representatives, but added that the issue was resolved without affecting the overall conduct of the poll. He described the turnout as encouraging. “In some places, the turnout is massive. In some places it is low, but generally I think the turnout is impressive,” he said.
