Ihekweaba made the statement before the National Assembly Tribunal, where he testified as a witness in the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief David Ogba Onuoha-Bourdex against Senator Mao Ohuabunwa of the PDP.
He explained that rather than abdicating his duties, he stoutly refused to declare the result of the election based on the falsified data presented to him, adding, “we started to examine the results local government by local government, and after we examined Arochukwu and Ohafia results and discovered huge anomalies, the Respondents refused and resisted the continuation of the examination of the remaining three local government areas.
“Pressure was brought on me to sign and declare the results as presented with all the manipulations in them, and I refused, insisting that the right thing should be done by
concluding the examination of the rest of the local government areas before the
declaration.”
The RO stated that he quickly wrote a report, which he submitted to the REC (Resident
Electoral Officer) informing her that the persuasion on him to announce a pre-arranged
result, which was not in tandem with the law, did not go down well with him and his
conscience.
When asked under cross-examination why he went to the Federal High Court to swear
to an affidavit after submitting the report to the REC, he said he decided to go the extra
mile to ensure the right thing was done based on the report he submitted to his
employers, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) on the large scale
defalcations, mutilations and inflation of votes on the result sheets skewed in favor of
the PDP candidate Mao Ohuabunwa.
Ihekweaba, who is also an Associate Professor in Computer Engineering at the Michael
Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, further alleged that when pressure
was mounted on him by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and its
candidate, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, he refused to surrender, adding that at no point
did INEC send another person to replace him as the RO.
Under further cross-examination by both the counsel of the defendant and INEC, the RO
remarked that he was not in a place to know whether INEC had power to appoint
another Returning Officer or not, stressing that he was appointment via a letter signed
by the Head of Department of Electoral Operations, INEC, Mr. G. I. Okoli, which he
tendered to the tribunal.
The RO added that it was in response to his report that the REC set up the committee
to investigate the widespread irregularities regretting that while the committee of which
he was a member set about the assignment, it could not finish its work because after
cross-checking two out of the five local government areas that make up Abia North
Senatorial District namely Arochukwu and Ohafia, “massive irregularities were noticed
and at that point the Respondents refused and resisted the continuation of the
examination of the remaining three local government areas”.
When the INEC counsel, Dr. Livy Uzukwu, (SAN) accused him of absconding, the RO
declared: “I did not abscond, I refused to act against my conscience by announcing
fictitious results in favor of the PDP candidate who did not win the election.
“Pressure was brought on me to sign and declare the results as presented with all the
manipulations in them and I refused insisting that the right thing be done by concluding
the examination of the rest of the local government areas before declaration. The result
I was being pressured to sign did not emanate from me as the duly appointed
Returning Officer for the Senatorial election.”
While denying suggestions by the defense counsel that he published his report on a
national daily and that he was working for the petitioners, Dr. Ihekweaba stated that he
knew nothing about the publication, adding that he was not working for anyone and that
he had nothing to lose by doing that which was needful, by swearing to the affidavit to
ensure that the right things were done.
He asserted that he was answerable to his conscience and INEC that appointed him,
pointing out that if he needed money, the PDP and the respondents were ready to pay
him more than anyone could have.
Earlier an expert witness, Mr. Adeola Layiwola, told the tribunal that analyses of the
result sheets exposed a lot of mutilations pointing out that certain figures were randomly
inserted without cognizance of their relationship in the context.
The statistician added that a proper computation of the genuine votes tally showed that
the petitioner Chief Dr. David Ogba Onuoha-Bourdex scored the highest number of valid
votes in the election.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the sitting, counsel to the petitioner, Chief Chris Uche,
(SAN) said: “I feel happy with what happened in today’s sitting. This crucial witness that
testified, the returning officer for the election had to say the truth; that he wrote a report
and swore to an affidavit of facts saying that the result that was brought to him to
declare was not the correct result. That is commendable.”
The Senior Advocate noted that for somebody in that position to risk it and insist on
the proper thing being done “I am very happy and hope that many Nigerians will adopt
this path of honour.”
“We have seen the result and like he said, there were so many discrepancies and
irregularities and that the committee reviewed two local governments out of five and
found a lot of irregularities, they were bringing pressure on him to still declare the
wrong result and he refused. So he has given that evidence before the tribunal and with
the evidence filed, the tribunal would come to a proper decision,” Chief Uche remarked.
The legal luminary explained that it was because the RO refused to declare the wrong
result, that made INEC to go and fish for somebody else to come and sign the form
EC8 and declare the result, pointing out that what the defense counsel were trying
unsuccessfully to do was to accuse the returning officer of absconding from his duty
post in a bid to justify the stranger that was procured to announce the result.
(Daily Post)
No comments:
Post a Comment