29th March, 2023
Prof. Nnenna Oti, Returning Officer, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abia State, has revealed how she was offered huge financial inducement to manipulate the results of the governorship election in the state.
The election was won by Labour Party’s Alex Otti, who defeated Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The collation of results was temporarily suspended until it resumed last Wednesday when the Returning Officer declared Otti the winner of the poll.
Oti, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Owerri (FUTO), spoke while being welcomed by management and students of the school on Tuesday.
According to her, she was promised huge sums of money if she would compromise to change the will of the people of Abia State.
She said as an electoral officer, she had never in her life participated in any election, but that duty came calling, saying she made her enquiries from Abuja.
Oti stated that she was willing to perish rather than compromise and subvert the will of the people.
“If I perish, I perish, they came with their threats, they came with their money, they came with their intimidation,” she said in a report by Channels TV.
She added: “I didn’t start today; I stand here before God, Jesus Christ. I have never defrauded anyone, all I did was to declare the riot act as follows: Under me, votes must count. Under me, the people’s mandate will be upheld because I, Professor Nnnena Oti, can never do evil.”
Otti had polled 175,467 votes to defeat Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 88,529 votes to come second.