By Nurat Uthman
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council in Enugu has taken a swipe at the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the State, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, saying he has no mandate to reclaim as far as the March 18 Enugu governorship election was concerned.
The Campaign Council said Edeoga should rather account for what it described as “massive electoral fraud and ruthless militarisation of the March 18 governorship election" by the Labour Party.
The PDP was reacting to a statement by Edeoga during a victory party by the member-elect for Udenu State Constituency, Obinna Ijere at Obollo-Afor on Wednesday.
The LP gubernatorial flag-bearer was quoted in the media as saying he would do everything humanly possible to reclaim his mandate, adding, “No retreat, no surrender. No negotiation. Forward ever, backward never until victory is assured.”
But reacting, the Director of Communications/Spokesperson of the Enugu State PDP Campaign Council, Barr Nana Ogbodo said: “Edeoga and his LP should wake up to the reality that the Enugu 2023 governorship election has been won and lost. They should get used to the fact that we now have a governor-elect in the person of Dr Peter Mbah in whom the people of the State vested their popular mandate on March 18 and nothing can change it”.
Continuing, the PDP said Edeoga and Labour Party should be held responsible for inciting and perpetrating electoral violence in parts of Enugu State during the governorship election.
“Nigerians heard the senator-elect and LP chieftain, Okey Ezea, loud and clear when he announced in a viral video that they would make the governorship election a ‘do-or-die affair’.
“Indeed the LP lived up to that declaration when Chijioke Edeoga, the party’s chieftains as well as the serving and retired generals they assembled used men of the armed forces and thugs to carry out reckless shooting, arrest, intimidation, manhandling of PDP supporters, and to perpetrate the worst electoral frauds in the history of Nsukka and Isi-Uzo LGAs in particular and Enugu North senatorial zone in general.
“In a society where the rule of law is at its best, Edeoga and his accomplices should be cooling their feet in custody, accounting for the heist they executed on democracy and the people.
“We join the CSOs and election observers in inviting Edeoga to tell Nigerians how about 17,000 voter turnout in Nsukka LGA on election day suddenly changed to well over 45,000 voters on Sunday just to gift him 30,294 phantom votes.
“Edeoga should explain how he manufactured the 12,779 ‘miracle’ votes in just the four wards of Owerre/Umuoyo, Ihe, Nkpunano, and Obukpa in Nsukka LGA alone.
“He should be explaining how Nkpunano and Ihe wards turned in identical scores of 3,410 votes each in favour of the Labour Party.
“Edeoga and the LP should further explain how he polled over 17,000 votes in the nine polling units inside the UNN at a time students and most staff were on election break as ordered by the National Universities Commission and on a day many national dailies reported low voter turnout.
“He should also explain how he used the military to hijack electoral materials and personnel in his Eha Amufu Ward 3 and inflated his votes by over 5,000. We want him to explain how the LP used the military to abduct the Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) in Umualor and some other places into the bush and inflated his scores in Isi-Uzo where we actually won to over 12,000 votes”.
The PDP congratulated Dr Peter Mbah, who receives his Certificate of Return Thursday and assured the people that their efforts and the confidence reposed in the governor-elect would not be in vain.
“The sacrifices made by the people in resisting the rigging machines and violent mercenaries of the LP would be adequately compensated by Dr. Peter Mbah’s innovative and transformative leadership,” the party concluded.
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