Enugu: Rigged Out Lawmaker Vows To Recover Stolen Mandate

FROM OUR POLITICAL DESK (ENUGU)

The member representing Enugu East Rural Constituency in the Enugu state House of Assembly, Hon. Hilary Ugwu ( Italo) has assured his supporters that the mandate willingly given to him during the last House of Assembly election but was fraudulently stolen will be retrieved through the legal process.

Speaking on what transpired during the March 18 House of Assembly election in Enugu state, Hon. Ugwu said that the people of his Constituency voted to overwhelm him but regretted that the votes did not count following the manipulation of the process by some corrupt officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in connivance with Labour Party members who according to him threw the provisions of the electoral laws to the wind and declared his Labour Party opponent, Raymond Okechukwu Ugwu winner of the election.

Hon. Ugwu who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Transport explained that apart from manipulating the figures of the votes cast in favor of Mr. Raymond Ugwu, there were cases of harassment, intimidation,  vote buying, threats, and vote canvassing by agents and thugs hired by his opponent and his party. 

He stated for instance that his agents at Central School Polling Centre in Emene were harassed, and intimidated and some of them were disfranchised by thugs of the Labour Party in the glaring presence of security agents who did nothing to protect them. He alleged that instead of playing an unbiased role, his agents were threatened which forced some of them to run for their lives without casting their votes while their Labour Party counterparts voted without harassment. “There were cases of vote canvassing which were unfortunately overlooked by the security personnel on duty there and other actions inimical to the electoral law were perpetrated but were ignored by d security agents.

Hon. Ugwu described what happened at the Enugu East LGA headquarters Collation Centre, Nkwo Nike as the mother of all harassment and intimidation. “Can you imagine a situation where the Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, RT? Hon. Edward Ubosi who is a PDP member was not allowed to enter the gate to the venue which is in his domain while Labour Party members who had no business there were allowed entrance into the venue even into the Collation area.

“A serving House of Representatives member, Hon. Cornelius Nnaji was chased away by soldiers while the new House of Representatives-elect who is a Labour Party member and yet to be sworn in was escorted to the INEC Collation Area by security agents. Even the Local Government Chairman, Hon. Livinus Nze Anike was not spared of the intimidation by the soldiers. The leader of the soldiers at Nkwor Nike did not hide his bias when he told his men to kill anybody that harasses any Labour Party official”.

The serving Enugu state House of Assembly member claimed that despite all the glaring anomalies, he still won the election and expressed his confidence in the judiciary to ensure that justice is done at the end of the day. It