Contrary to accusations that he absconded and abandoned his duty post during the last general elections, the Returning Officer, (RO) for Abia North Senatorial district, Dr. Ihekweaba Chukwugoziem says he merely refused to sign a fake result allegedly presented to him by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
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.
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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.
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