BOSSTYCOONZ

Anambra: Nwoye On Collision Course With PDP, Vows Not To Participate In ‘Sham’ Supplementary Polls

  November 28, 2013

ANAMBRA PDP GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE, MR TONY NWOYE, EXPRESSING WORRY OVER THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HIS NAME, THAT OF HIS FATHER AND UNCLE FROM INEC VOTERS’ REGISTER AT POLLING UNIT 004, OFIANTA, NSUGBE WARD ONE, ON SATURDAY (16/11/13) DURING GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION.

Comrade Tony Nwoye, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate in the Anambra State gubernatorial election has reiterated his earlier stance that he would not participate in the November 30 supplementary elections in the state and has called on his supporters to boycott same.

Nwoye, who said he was ‘shocked’ when he found out his name was missing from the voters register used in the November 16 elections, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega to heed calls for the cancellation of the results of the election.
According to him, “If Jega wanted us to participate he would have done the needful; and he still has the opportunity to do the needful as required by the Electoral Act and conduct a free and fair election. A situation where most of my supporters where harassed, beaten up, and not even by only political thugs but also by security agents, an election where many people were disenfranchised, where results sheets were not produced and Jega decided to uphold it and say he is going to do supplementary”.
Apologizing for his decision not to contest in the supplementary elections, he said “That is my stand. I am sorry if my stand is hurting anybody but that is my stand after I have consulted widely and looked at issues. So, the summary of the thing is that I am not participating”.
On his name missing from the register, the former student leader said, “I was shocked. You know it was an INEC staff that called me to tell me. That polling booth has more than 900 voters, but why I was not so shocked was that a friend working in INEC called me that my name is not in the register, that they have removed my name from the register.
“Since I was born and started exercising my franchise as a young man, that is the polling booth I have been voting and there is no election in Nigeria that I didn’t vote in that polling booth”.
Recalling that his INEC voter’s card was the same one he used to fill the form when he wanted to contest for a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2011 general elections and the same one he also used to fill the PDP governorship form and INEC governorship form for the current election that is generating ripples, Nwoye asked rhetorically, “Where did I get the card from? I was captured, my name was in the register but suddenly they de-listed my name and that of my family members, my towns’ people and not only in my home town where 3,000 persons were disenfranchised, but across the state.
“So somebody expects me, just because Prof. Jega wants to justify such an irregularity. Remember my background in activism. So my stand is that I am not going to be part of that sham called supplementary election”.
He dismissed the notion that he was careless by not checking his name during the review of voters register in Anambra, saying it was a deliberate act by the ruling party in the state, APGA, in collaboration with security agents and INEC to disenfranchise his supporters in areas where the party perceived as PDP stronghold but added that “I have left everything in the hands of God”.
On the allegation that the Federal Government may have sold him out by helping APGA retain the governorship seat in Anambra State, Nwoye stated, “I am not aware of that one. But everybody should search his or her conscience”.
The PDP governorship candidate, while calling on his supporters to remain calm said, “whatsoever God wants is what will happen. Let them have faith in God as we have good intentions to transform Anambra State. If God says that we are going to be governor, we will be governor. If God says we are not going to be governor no matter what we do or struggle, we will not be”.