Encomium
SOME prominent Abians have equally alleged a grand plot to toy with the will of Abia people. In a recent meeting held in Osisioma-Ngwa, Abia State, they said the best INEC should do is to declare Dr Ikpeazu governor, having satisfied all electoral requirements. The groups led by billionaire mogul, Elder Emmanuel Adaelu, warned the electoral body against throwing Abia into chaos.
The Abia group converged again over the weekend in Lagos to ask INEC to do declare Ikpeazu Abia Governor-elect.
Led this time by former Senate President Chief Adolphus Wabara, he told news men they won’t allow the injustice targeted at their senatorial district to prevail.
Senator Enyi Abaribe is also not happy with the way and manner INEC is conducting the Abia guber election.
Abaribe in a phone chat told ENCOMIUM Weekly that the right thing must be done. The Senator representing Abia South and Chairman Senate Committee on Communication equally appealed to INEC to respect the mandate Abians gave his kinsman (Dr. Ikpeazu). The former Abia Deputy Governor and Dr Ikpeazu are from Obingwa Local Government.
ANALYSTS FAVOUR OKEZIE IKPEAZU
DESPITE all the protests against the Abia guber rerun, the two main political parties, the PDP and the APGA have intensified campaigns for votes in the nine LGs and 276 Polling Units (PUs) the supplementary election is holding on Saturday, April 25, 2015.
While it has been acknowledged that APGA is now a force in Abia politics, political analysts opined it’s difficult for the party to upset the PDP machine, especially when its candidate, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu is leading with over 80,000 votes. According to one analysis, the total number of PVCs collected in the affected areas, which is the real numbers of eligible voters is 130,000, not 179,000.
For the PDP current lead to be overturned during the rerun, their closest rival APGA must win 99 per cent of the votes.
That is if up to 80 per cent of the 130,000 PVC holders from the affected PUs would come out and vote only for APGA.
“And this is not possible in a keenly contested election.”
PDP, APGA TEST POPULARITY
THE fierce battle for the soul of Abia is between the PDP candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, a grassroots politician and former Deputy General Manager, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) and the immediate past Chief Executive/Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc who flies the flag of APGA.
APGA’S DR ALEX OTTI INCOMMUNICADO
Contacted for his side of the story on Friday, April 17, 2015, Dr. Alex Otti declined comments.
ENCOMIUM Weekly also reached out to a key figure in his campaign organization, Barrister Oracle Nwala who also kept mum on all the allegations against his principal.
“Good afternoon, Sir. ENCOMIUM magazine wants your reaction to the following allegations against the Abia APGA guber candidate, Alex Otti from the Abia PDP camp in respect of the Abia guber polls:
“1 That the Abia REC, Prof. Selina Okoh is Dr Otti’s aunt and hence, partial.
2 That the RO, Prof. Ozumba is also sympathetic to Otti’s cause, since he’s a friend of the university where he’s the VC. He also awarded him an Honorary Doctorate degree, not long ago.
3 Dr. Otti has also been accused of bribing the state electoral officials to declare the Abia guber polls inconclusive,” our unreplied SMS read.
