**Reiterates the belief that BVAS is truly a game changer
The Gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Abia State in the Governorship and House of Assembly election held last Saturday in the State Alex Ottia has urged his supporters and other citizens of the State to be calm as no amount of cooked up figures can torpedo his victory.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday Otti who commended the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for the deployment of BVAS described it as the real gamechanger which has demystified Obingwa votes.
Dr. Alex Otti, noted that the deployment of BVAS has exposed the fraud being perpetrated in Obigwan Local Government over the years by the ruling party in the state.
Recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Monday suspended the collation of governorship election results in Abia State after claims that the ruling party in the state attempted to rewrite the results in Obigwan Local Government to upturn the original results as already collated by INEC officials.
From the results released on INEC website, Alex Otti of the Labour Party won a total of 10 out of the 16 Local Government Area results so far declared by the INEC, before the commission suspended collation of the Abia Governorship election.
In the results declared so far for the 12 LGA Otti polled a total of 171,747 votes while Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, scored a total of 79,477 votes after winning five LGAs.
According to him, “When they thought the got the last figure, they wrote 86000 for Obingwa and try to push it in but the collation officer resisted the attempt and they said they were not going to leave there until he signed.
“After a long time he signed the document for his own safety and then INEC, security people moved them back to ummuahia
“Before then, like it is said, there is no perfect crime. They had released the house of Assembly result for the two constituencies for Obingwa and declared PDP candidates as winners, the total votes with which they were declared winners was just above 27000 and total number of voters accredited was below 28000 so that is to make allowance for void votes and all that, findings about accreditation was less than 28000
“A few questions that Abia people are asking, if it is the same election with accreditation held same time, and two ballot papers issued to people whose accreditation were successful how will you justify 86, 000 votes in the same Obingwa for governorship and less than 28000 votes for the two house of Assembly candidates that were declared?
“When the confusion came to a head, the national headquarters of INEC intervened and said that collation for Obingwa be suspended and that INEC commissioners were going to visit Umuahia today (Tuesday) to verify the numbers or review it. “Subsequently, yesterday another release from the electoral umpire invited INEC staff and all the people involved to Abuja for today.
“I believe that as we speak the verification and review must be happening. Interestingly the Abia Government has been going round issuing press releases and making all sorts of statements that are capable of breaching the peace
“I will like to use this opportunity to call on Abia people to remain peaceful and calm. 16 local Government results have been collated out of the 17 and the total votes of the Labour Party scored in the 16 local government is about 172000, and that of PDP is less than 80, 000, so any how you flip and dice it, even the number they have inflated that does not have the support of the law can not torpedo our victory
“That having been said, it is also important to underscore the point that we believe that INEC will do the right thing. All the other Local Governments that have been cleared used the BVAS machine for accreditation and it is our firm believe that INEC will not change the rule in the middle of the contest.
“So we are calling on our supporters, Labour Party and the Abia people to remain calm and wait on INEC to release the results or to finish their review and release the result.
“The other important thing is that we are also thanking INEC like we have always said, the BVAS is a game changer particularly if there is a will to use it and particularly what has happened this time around is that the BVAS has demystified Obingwa Local Government in Abia State
“Recall that in 2015 when I contested for the first time PDP produced 82000 votes from Obingwa and upturned the victory that Abia people gave to us, this time around they wanted to do the same thing but the BVAS has proved that there are not more than 30000 votes in Obingwa and that is what we also proved in 2015 that led to our victory at the court of Appeal
“I thank all my co contestants, particularly those that have sent letters congratulating me and have also called on INEC to release the results forthwith so that Abia will be at peace.
He said APGA candidate Prof Greg Ibe, Accord Party candidate Bishop Emeka Nwampa and the AAC candidate have all called to congratulate him on his victory
“It is our form believe that INEC will do the right thing and ensure that only results that are based on the BVAS as provided in section 47 of the electoral act are accepted. I believe that when INEC is done, we will be declared winners of that election. “