Former national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Senator Victor Umeh has said that the amended Electoral Act 2022 has inspired confidence in the electorate that votes would count in the 2023 general election.
Umeh who is now the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Anambra Central district, insisted that there would be mass participation of the electorate in the 2023 election than the voter apathy witnessed in past polls in the country.
Umeh who is now the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party for Anambra Central district, insisted that there would be mass participation of the electorate in the 2023 election than the voter apathy witnessed in past polls in the country.
Speaking at an event organized by the Labour Party in Umuahia, Abia State , Umeh alleged that the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, was rigged out of the 2015 and 2019 poll because of electoral brigandage and fraud.
He said; “The Electoral reform that we have seen in Nigeria today has now restored hope to everybody. Anybody who the people vote for must be declared winner. This is the new regime, it happened in Anambra last year because of the anti rigging machine, BIVAS. The Electoral Act has approved the use of technology in the management of the electoral process. Rigging is now gone forever. In 2015 and 2019, Dr. Alex Otti lost in the Supreme Court because the smart card reader was not in the Electoral Act. But today, electronic transmission of results is now recognized by the Electoral Act. If you win election, nobody can change it. With this new template, I’m confident that Abia will be free in 2023. We saw it happen in Osun state in the just concluded election. The incumbent governor who is from the ruling APC was defeated and nobody could help him. Today by divine providence, everything has changed. What happened in 2015 and 2019 can no longer happen in Nigeria where somebody will win election and another person will take it and nothing will happen.
“Alex Otti was that candidate that Abia needed to put it out of bad governance pervading the state. During the election, Dr. Alex Otti won the election in the first round, but because that era was an era of electoral brigandage and fraud.
“After all we did, the government of the day brazenly took away a very clear victory of Dr. Alex Otti. It was a very sad for me because when we came for the supplementary election, we couldn’t offset the magic at Obingwa LGA where somebody who lost election got 82,000 votes in one local government. This was when average votes in other local governments were either 15,000 or less. There yet another one from Osisioma Ngwa LGA where they had 42,000 votes. I remember these things because I was involved. Two LGAs erased the victory that was widespread in Abia for Dr. Alex Otti.
“We headed to the tribunal. They compromised justice and we went to Court of Appeal and won. That judgment was delivered on 31st December 2015. Our joy knew no bounds.
“They headed to the Supreme Court. On the day of the judgment, I was sitting in front of the Justices; I was a miracle that I didn’t die that day because it was like the devil was hovering around the Supreme Court. The Justices took a break, came back and relied on technicalities to set aside the judgment of the court of Appeal.
“So, I have been praying because I believe in Dr. Alex Otti. The way Nigeria have been following Peter Obi today was the way I believe in Alex Otti to change the face of Abia.“
