The Enugu PDP Campaign Council has dismissed the statement credited to opposition parties rejecting the outcome of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APGA Governorship Candidate, Frank Nweke, and his LP counterpart, Chijioke Edeoga, had in separate statements criticised the result of the election as a subversion of the people’s mandate.
PDP, however, insisted that the people of Enugu rose above clannish, religious and party divides to elect the PDP candidate, Dr Peter Mbah, as the best-prepared for the job.
Nana Ogbodo, the Director of Communications/Spokesman for the council, disclosed this in a statement on Friday in Enugu.
Ogbodo was reacting to the allegations by Nweke and Edeoga that the PDP rigged the election in favour of Mbah.
He stated, “If any party should complain bitterly, it was indeed the PDP, which was manifestly rigged out in several local government areas, where the election was militarised against their supporters, despite being the ruling party”.
He said that it was instructive that neither Nweke nor Edeoga uttered a word of condemnation, when LP’s Senator-elect for Enugu North Senatorial District, Chief Okey Ezea, allegedly declared the governorship election a “do-or-die affair” in a viral video.
Ogbodo stated: “Recall that when the duo levelled allegations of planned compromise of the governorship poll against the PDP, INEC, and other vital institutions of democracy ahead of the March 18 polls, we were quick to point out that they were not only making excuses for their expected failure.
“They were indirectly letting Enugu people into the mayhem they planned to unleash on them, having failed to condemn the statement by the LP chieftain and senator-elect.
“We also told you that Nweke has been a part and parcel of PDP since 1999 until last year, having served as Chief of Staff to former Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani and Minister in three ministries.”
He further maintained that Nweke only left for APGA on the erroneous permutation that PDP’s governorship ticket would go outside Nkanu land so he could harvest from the expected protest votes of the people.
“We can authoritatively inform you that Nweke will also be on his way out of APGA after he had lost again at the Election Petition Tribunal.
“He did not disappoint when he characteristically took to the media to deprecate the outcome of the governorship poll, which he was bound to lose in the first place.
“It is noteworthy that he only garnered 1,609 votes in his native Nkanu West LGA to lose scandalously to PDP, which polled 8,382 votes,” Ogbodo stated.
He added that after all the media vituperations, Nweke only managed to poll a meagre 17,983 votes across the state as against 160,895 votes polled by PDP’s Mbah.
“Therefore, we wonder how a man, who scored only 1,609 votes in his LGA, a man rejected by his own people, and also running on a party without structure intend to win a gubernatorial election against the PDP that is on ground,” he further added.
On Edeoga, Ogbodo stated: “Edeoga knows very well that his false claims of over-voting in Nkanu East LGA are a deliberate fabrication that has been put to rest by INEC.
“He only regurgitates the fallacy to mislead unsuspecting Nigerians, which is the usual Enugu LP’s penchant for propaganda.
“We are aware and have it on record, all the atrocious rigging and militarisation of the election against our supporters in most parts of Enugu North Senatorial District and Isi-Uzo LGA.
“We have ample evidence on how the PDP was manifestly rigged out in Nsukka LGA, Udenu, Igboeze North, Igbo-Eze South, Igbo-Etiti and Isi Uzo,” he added.
Ogbodo, however, urged the duo to accept the olive branch and be part of the new Enugu State that Mbah desires to build.
“These are members of the PDP that only wanted to go to the Lion Building in other vehicles.
“East, West, North and South, there is no place like home and we are ever ready to welcome them back whenever they return,” he added.