RAYMOND OZOJI reports 


The Chairman and Mayor of Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, Hon. Emmanuel Ikechukwu Nweke (iga) has officially responded to the plethora of allegations in the social media regarding conduct of the just concluded All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) House of Assembly primary elections in the council area. 


Nweke had been accused of snatching and carting electoral materials away to allegedly feather the nest of one of the aspirants named Kosisochukwu Ibemesi during the election. 


But in response to the allegations, Nweke while speaking exclusively to this journalist in Awka, made it abundantly clear that nothing extraordinary took place in the course of the election instead he worked according to the instructions given to all the Mayors by the national electoral committee of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). 


Nweke recalled that Mayors were the last set of people to meet with the APGA national electoral committee and election materials were handed over to them on the instruction that the electoral officers and assistant electoral officers should stay very close to local governments to enable them commence distribution early enough on the election day. 


He said that the materials given to the Mayors were the membership register which determined who qualified to vote, accredited voter tags given to accredited party members for identification, electoral officers' tags and result sheets, one each for House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate respectively, stressing that the documents were handed over to the electoral officers. 


Nweke stated that he began to distribute the materials at exactly 7am to the electoral officers at the council headquarters Nteje to move to their various wards for the commencement of the exercise and by 7:30am he concluded distribution of electoral materials, noting that he acted strictly according to instructions given to the Mayors. 


He said he left the council secretariat with no materials in his possession and that the electoral officers who were given the election materials were known to the national electoral committee of APGA. That they were not imported and were also confirmed by the returning officers. 


Nweke who was apparently astonished at the allegations, maintained that it was absolutely baseless for anyone to insinuate that he made away with election materials whereas same election materials were distributed to electoral officers and used at the various wards for the election. 


Although he stated that the general assumption was that he was working for one of the aspirants who incidentally hails from his own town in Oyi but he equally explained that no one can manipulate Option A4 model, adding that he voted in his own ward during the exercise.  


The Oyi Local Government Chairman who emphasized the need for the wish of the party to be respected, stressed that he did not in any way doctor anything and he did not in any way facilitate carting away of election materials. That his accusers are just assassinating his character for nothing.


He therefore advised APGA members in Oyi Local Government Area to remain faithful and loyal to the party irrespective of whatever the outcome of the primaries were. That it is better to deploy the internal mechanism of dispute resolution of the party than to rock the boat and kill the party even as he appealed to those who lost at the primaries to accept defeat in good faith and in the spirit of sportsmanship as party remains supreme. 




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