The governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Imo State, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, has insisted that all evidences available to him show that the March 9, governorship election in the state was manipulated in favour of the PDP and its candidate, Emeka Ihedioha.
Nwosu, while giving evidence in the petition he filed against the declaration of Ihedioha as governor by INEC, alleged that the results as announced showed that votes were only allotted to PDP, especially in the three local government areas of Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu Mbaise and Ezinihitte.
He said the evidences from the card readers showed great variance between actual voting and the votes declared.
Nwosu, who was led in evidence by his Counsel, Okey Amechi (SAN), also told the court that his agents in the three local government areas were manhandled and chased away from the collation centres and as such were not able to sign the result sheets.
Earlier, Nwosu identified all the evidences he presented in court, including the results in Form EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D, EC8D and the statistician’s report on the election.
He said, “My Lord, I have seen all the evidence as I presented them and I am relying on them to prove my case that the result of the election did not conform with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act (as amended).
“In Ezinihitte, my agents were beaten up by agents of PDP, chased away by thugs of PDP and the candidate of the party and as such did not sign the result sheets at the local government headquarters,” he said.
While cross examining Nwosu, Counsel to PDP, Ken Njemanze (SAN), showed him the result of the election where PDP got 273, 454 votes compared to AA’s 190, 364 and asked if PDP did not get the majority of votes cast.
In his reply, Nwosu said, “I did not have the highest votes because it was allotted.”
Njemanze also referred Nwosu to a judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja in a case filed by the Action Peoples Party (APP) which disqualified him as candidate of AA.
But Nwosu said he was not aware of the case, adding that he was neither a candidate of APP nor APC, stressing that he had in his kitty a judgment of the Supreme Court which affirmed him as candidate of AA in the election.
