The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State on Tuesday called for the cancellation of Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections in five local government areas of the state.
The local government areas are Afikpo North, Ezza North, Ivo, Onicha, and Ohaukwu.
Stanley Emegha, chairman of the party in Ebonyi State, spoke to journalists on the development in Abakaliki, the state capital, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities.
According to him, APC has proof of irregularities committed by some opposition parties in collaboration with security agencies in the state to deliberately void votes cast in favour of the APC.
The chairman also alleged that there were incidents of violence against his party’s supporters in some areas. He alleged that his party’s agent in the Izzi local government area was killed.
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Emegha said the party has petitioned the electoral umpire in the state over the irregularities.
He called on the commission to carry out a forensic examination of the ballot papers and other voting materials, including the BVAs from the suspected council areas.
“For example, in places like Afikpo North, there were a lot of manipulations from the opposition party voiding our already captured votes.
“We got clear information that what they were doing there was to bring out ballot papers in favour of our party and double the fingerprints to void them.
“They did this in connivance with security agencies. If we can do a forensic examination of the double thumbprints, we will discover the variations.
“We decided not to be confrontational, but to write to INEC for cancellation of results in such areas. Such things also happened at Ezza North, Ohaukwu, and Ivo local government areas. All these are not acceptable to us,” he said.
