PDP Forced Me To Sign Fake Results – Abia North Returning Officer

PDP Forced Me To Sign Fake Results – Abia North
Returning Officer
Source :thepanaceareports
Contrary to accusations that he absconded and
abandoned his duty post during the last general
elections, the Returning Officer, (RO) for Abia North
Senatorial district, Dr. Ihekweaba Chukwugoziem
says he merely refused to sign a fake result allegedly
presented to him by the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP.
Ihekweaba made the statement before the National
Assembly Tribunal, where he testified as a witness in
the petition filed by the candidate of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief David Ogba
Onuoha-Bourdex against Senator Mao Ohuabunwa
of the PDP.
He explained that rather than abdicating his duties,
he stoutly refused to declare the result of the election
based on the falsified data presented to him, adding,
"we started to examine the results local government
by local government, and after we examined
Arochukwu and Ohafia results and discovered huge
anomalies, the Respondents refused and resisted the
continuation of the examination of the remaining
three local government areas.
"Pressure was brought on me to sign and declare the
results as presented with all the manipulations in
them, and I refused, insisting that the right thing
should be done by concluding the examination of the
rest of the local government areas before the
declaration."
The RO stated that he quickly wrote a report, which
he submitted to the REC (Resident Electoral Officer)
informing her that the persuasion on him to
announce a pre-arranged result, which was not in
tandem with the law, did not go down well with him
and his conscience.
When asked under cross-examination why he went to
the Federal High Court to swear to an affidavit after
submitting the report to the REC, he said he decided
to go the extra mile to ensure the right thing was
done based on the report he submitted to his
employers, the Independent National Electoral
Commission, (INEC) on the large scale defalcations,
mutilations and inflation of votes on the result sheets
skewed in favor of the PDP candidate Mao
Ohuabunwa.
Ihekweaba, who is also an Associate Professor in
Computer Engineering at the Michael Okpara
University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State,
further alleged that when pressure was mounted on
him by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party,
(PDP) and its candidate, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, he
refused to surrender, adding that at no point did
INEC send another person to replace him as the RO.
Under further cross-examination by both the counsel
of the defendant and INEC, the RO remarked that he
was not in a place to know whether INEC had power
to appoint another Returning Officer or not, stressing
that he was appointment via a letter signed by the
Head of Department of Electoral Operations, INEC,
Mr. G. I. Okoli, which he tendered to the tribunal.
The RO added that it was in response to his report
that the REC set up the committee to investigate the
widespread irregularities regretting that while the
committee of which he was a member set about the
assignment, it could not finish its work because after
cross-checking two out of the five local government
areas that make up Abia North Senatorial District
namely Arochukwu and Ohafia, "massive
irregularities were noticed and at that point the
Respondents refused and resisted the continuation of
the examination of the remaining three local
government areas".
When the INEC counsel, Dr. Livy Uzukwu, (SAN)
accused him of absconding, the RO declared:"I did
not abscond, I refused to act against my conscience
by announcing fictitious results in favor of the PDP
candidate who did not win the election.
"Pressure was brought on me to sign and declare the
results as presented with all the manipulations in
them and I refused insisting that the right thing be
done by concluding the examination of the rest of the
local government areas before declaration. The
result I was being pressured to sign did not emanate
from me as the duly appointed Returning Officer for
the Senatorial election."
While denying suggestions by the defense counsel
that he published his report on a national daily and
that he was working for the petitioners, Dr.
Ihekweaba stated that he knew nothing about the
publication, adding that he was not working for
anyone and that he had nothing to lose by doing that
which was needful, by swearing to the affidavit to
ensure that the right things were done.
He asserted that he was answerable to his
conscience and INEC that appointed him, pointing
out that if he needed money, the PDP and the
respondents were ready to pay him more than
anyone could have.
Earlier an expert witness, Mr. Adeola Layiwola, told
the tribunal that analyses of the result sheets
exposed a lot of mutilations pointing out that certain
figures were randomly inserted without cognizance
of their relationship in the context.
The statistician added that a proper computation of
the genuine votes tally showed that the petitioner
Chief Dr. David Ogba Onuoha-Bourdex scored the
highest number of valid votes in the election.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the sitting,
counsel to the petitioner, Chief Chris Uche, (SAN)
said: "I feel happy with what happened in today's
sitting. This crucial witness that testified, the
returning officer for the election had to say the truth;
that he wrote a report and swore to an affidavit of
facts saying that the result that was brought to him to
declare was not the correct result. That is
commendable."
The Senior Advocate noted that for somebody in that
position to risk it and insist on the proper thing being
done "I am very happy and hope that many Nigerians
will adopt this path of honour."
"We have seen the result and like he said, there were
so many discrepancies and irregularities and that the
committee reviewed two local governments out of
five and found a lot of irregularities, they were
bringing pressure on him to still declare the wrong
result and he refused. So he has given that evidence
before the tribunal and with the evidence filed, the
tribunal would come to a proper decision," Chief
Uche remarked.
The legal luminary explained that it was because the
RO refused to declare the wrong result, that made
INEC to go and fish for somebody else to come and
sign the form EC8 and declare the result, pointing out
that what the defense counsel were trying
unsuccessfully to do was to accuse the returning
officer of absconding from his duty post in a bid to
justify the stranger that was procured to announce
the result.
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