…urges INEC to conclude review, release results
John Alechenu, Abuja
The Abia State Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party, Dr Alex Otti, has appealed to the people of the state to remain calm even as he called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to expedite action on its review and release the outcome of the polls.

Otti made the appeal at a media briefing in Abuja, on Tuesday.

He urged INEC to rely only on the results using the BVAS and posted on its IREV.

According to him, officials of the electoral management body resisted attempts to foist contrived results from Obingwa and Isialangwa on them.

Otti said the BVAS technology has proved to be the game changer of being allowed to work optimally because from the results so far made public by INEC, the magic numbers often produced from Obingwa is a hoax.

He said before now, the ruling People’s Democratic Party posted 80,000 votes from Obingwa but the reality as exposed by the BVAS is not more than 30,000.

Otti revealed that in their recent attempt to subvert the people’s will, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the state tried to smuggle in unbelievable numbers of votes.

He said, “The numbers they brought in from two local governments kept changing because they weren’t sure with which margin we were leading.

“They held INEC staff, hostage, for 36 hours. And at some point, the figures they were doctoring were changing.

“When they thought they have got the right figures, they wrote 86,000 for Obingwa and tried to push it in the collation officer resisted them they kept him and he had to sign under duress for his safety. “

Otti said he had warned about an alleged plot by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the state to unleash violence to muscle its way through and he has been proved right.

He said, Two local governments were used in an attempt to rig the election. One of them is Isialangwa North where the PDP Candidate comes from and the other one was Obingwa where the current Governor comes from.

“On that day, mayhem was unleashed and every attempt was made to rig the election people resisted them and at the end of the day, the Obingwa collation Centre located at the Local Government Headquarters, was under siege by armed men, thugs, miscreants and all sorts of human beings.

“They made attempts first to bring in doctored results to the collation Centre they were resisted by our agents.

“What they did was to descend heavily on the major agent of Labour Party and beat him to pulp he passed out, they took him out of the collation Centre and left him for dead. George Chidozie is his name, he is a medical doctor. As we speak, he is lying critically ill in an undisclosed hospital in Abia. “

Otti explained that INEC officials deserved commendation for so far resisting pressure to subvert the will of the people.