The spokesman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Ejike Oji, has condemned the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections held in the state.
He noted that while the elections in Nigeria were relatively peaceful with respect to people’s rights, the situation in Abia State was the opposite.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, he said:”The election was characterised by people in authority brutalising the people they want to go and represent, using state apparatus (and) state security agencies.
“It was characterised by ballot box snatching, it was characterised by holding hostage electoral materials in the different local government and rewriting results.
“It was characterised by people being coerced to vote parties they didn’t want to vote for.”
On the validity of his claims, Mr Oji stated that there were persons willing to testify based on what they saw during the polls, adding that some also had videos of the activities.
Although Mr Oji admitted that he did not witness any of the said activities at his polling unit, and that the allegations he had made were based on third party information made available to him, he maintained that the allegations could not have been fabricated.
He stated that if they were untrue, people would not completely give account of what happened to them. “I saw about 28 young men who were beaten mercilessly and they were hospitalised for two days.
“As a physician, I saw the traumatic outcome of what happened to them. One of them I had to take to the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia to be seen by a surgeon and had x-rays done to be sure there were no fractures.
“There was evidence that people were brutalised,” he maintained.
He also said that his party remained committed to ensuring that the people of the state were able to choose their leaders through credible elections and to also ensure that quality people were put in charge of the state.
‘We Won Landslide’
The Commissioner for Information in Abia State, Anthony Agbazuere, however, immediately debunked the claims by Mr Oji.
Joining the programme via the telephone, he accused the APGA of looking for excuses for their failure in the state.
“Its very obvious that when people lose elections, they will start looking for faults.
“The state government is not in control of the Army; the state government is not in control of the Police. We know that very well; the constitution is very clear.”
He said that the claims by Mr Oji were “unsubstantiated” and were fabricated as excuses for their failure to beat PDP’s popular candidates.
“We won landslide. We won very clearly,” he added, boasting that the PDP would defeat APGA again in the April 11 polls.
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