Member representing Bende Federal Constituency Hon. Benjamin Kalu has expressed disappointment with the outcome of December 18 local government election in Abia in which the ruling PDP won all chairmanship and Councillorship seats, saying election did not take place.
Hon. Kalu who is also the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, spoke on Monday in a live radio political programme on 94.9 Flo FM in Umuahia monitored by ABN TV, insisting that his constituency did not experience any accreditation of voters let alone voting exercise.
He berated the chairman of Abia State Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa over alleged lack of transparency and fairness in the process despite reported hitches especially non-availability of materials and manpower for the exercise.
He said, “No polling unit in Bende local government area opened for accreditation, we are not talking about election, we are talking about accreditation. There was no voter register anywhere in the polling units.
“I don’t know what they fed the governor with, but it’s not the governor, but Prof. Mkpa, the head of the Abia State Independent Election Commission (ABSIEC).”
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Hon Benjamin also added that governor Okezie Should be left out of the outcome of the election for now and maintained that election didn’t hold in Bende.
“I want to see any evidence of voters register used for accreditation in the Bende Federal Constituency, there’s non.
“People were asked to pay for forms, people spent their money to the campaign, people did billboards.
“It wasn’t that the election was rigged. It’s when you have an election that you can say it was rigged or they could not protect their result. But in this case, there was no election.” Hon. Kalu affirmed.
The lawmaker also cited a statement credited to the electoral officer in a video and efforts made by his party to protect the election materials from hoodlums and rigging.
”In Bende, the Electoral Officer said on a video that the election will not hold today but will hold on a later date.
“We also have a video where the DPO and the agents of PDP and APC escorted the materials from ABSIEC office to DPO’s office in Bende.
“Not even a single paper left there. I saw people circulating pictures that they did election in their parlours, Where did they get their materials from? Hon. Kalu asked.
He expressed anger that contestants were made to spend their resources with the false hope that election was going to take place, describing ABSIEC’s action as fraudulent.
“They can sue ABSIEC. You make them come out to spend their money, it would have been good if they did election and you failed them. There is no evidence of any election.
“My joy as the caucus leader of Bende is that we have once again proved that PDP is not holding the grassroots, it was in their wisdom not to hold that election, there was no how they would have won, not possible.
“They avoided election, went into selection, and then a declaration.” Hon. Kalu said.
He however adds that though his party rejected the outcome of the election but noted that it won’t stop the state government to proceed in the process, but revealed that his joy is that his people campaigned from house to house.
“The structures were there for us to win the election despite the leaders of the party not being around.” Hon. Kalu added.
