The Southeastern zone of Network Evangelical Bishops of Nigeria (NEBN) has rejected the result of Enugu State governorship election held on March 18, calling it an “unacceptable assault on the people.”
In a statement, yesterday, signed by its President, Bishop Samuel Ani, and Publicity Secretary, Bishop Emeka Nwafor, after a two-day meeting in Umuahia, Abia State, the bishops said they are convinced that the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, “won the election fair and square.”
They stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja was clever by half, by thinking that the public would consider it fair if it “awarded Abia to Labour Party (LP) and Enugu to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), when it looked into grave reports by different parties that the ruling PDP in Abia and Enugu states had inflated votes in some councils on an industrial scale.”
They noted that the declaration by the Commission in the state “is nothing other than a coup d’etat against the people who came out to vote for change after 24 years of PDP’s imperial rule.
“This is why the entire state has been like graveyard in contrast to neighbouring Abia, where the rightful winner, Dr. Alex Otti, of the LP, was declared victorious, a development, which saw hundreds of thousands of people in towns, cities and villages of the state wildly celebrating the dawn of a new era.
“We are convinced that the 16,000 votes in Nkanu East Council were made up so that compromised INEC would pronounce the PDP candidate winner.”
They stressed that even in the presidential election, which generated voter enthusiasm throughout the country, there were not up to 9,000 persons, who voted in Nkanu East Council.
The bishops remarked that LP’s success in the governorship election was consistent with a pattern of voting in the just concluded general election in the state, which saw the party win seven out of the eight House of Representatives seats, two of the three Senate seats, 14 of the 24 House of Assembly seats and 87.7 per cent of votes cast in the presidential election.
