8th June, 2023
The Labour Party (LP) House of Representatives Caucus Leader, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene, has faulted the testimony of a witness of Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Ndubuisi Nwobu, at the presidential election petition tribunal.
Ogene described the claim of the witness as watery, contradictory and admission of failure by the leadership of the PDP in Anambra state.
During proceedings on Wednesday, Nwobu who is Anambra PDP chairman and also the state collation agent of the party, alleged that “magic” happened to the votes of the PDP candidate at different collation centres.
The results of the election in Anambra, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, indicate that Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate scored 584,621 votes, Atiku polled 9,036 votes in the state, while Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress scored 5,111 votes.
Ogene, who is the House of Reps Member – Elect for Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Anambra state, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, said the integrity of the result in Anambra is cast in the fortress of the uncompromising will of the people of Anambra state to vote for their son, who is not only popular in the state, but has also been overwhelmingly accepted across the nation as the face of the new leadership that Nigeria deserve.
According to Ogene, “The allusion to ‘magic’ by Ndubuisi Nwobu in his testimony is laughable, because the only obvious attempted magic in Anambra, was the failed plot by Nwobu and his co-conspirators, to conjure electoral success, where they had abysmally failed to win the trust of the people, as a result of their less than transparent and transactional political philosophy that do not put to account the interest of the people.”
Ogene said further that it was contradictory and self-indicting, for Nwobu to confirm that election results were signed at the polling unit and ward levels by all party agents, including those of the PDP, but inexplicably alleged that the same results which was announced by INEC, were products of ‘magic’.
Ogene: “Nwobu should be decent enough to admit that he failed woefully as the PDP chairman in Anambra state to mobilize support for his principal, Atiku, and also show integrity and good character by transparently giving the PDP national leadership and their candidate the true account of why he failed to achieve good result, despite the huge resources made available to them in Anambra state for the project, rather than playing the dishonourable role of a court jester.
“If I may ask, what was PDP expecting to achieve in Anambra state, given the manner the party and its principalities in the state muscled our revered leader, Peter Obi, out of the party, by plotting to disgrace him in his homestead, Anambra?
“Besides, what was Nwobu’s mission in the over 30 pulling units he visited on election day, as he admitted to the tribunal? As a party collation agent, was he supposed to be roaming round polling units where he was not registered as a voter? Nwobu should take his drama to the appropriate stage for such, as the tribunal is not the right arena for such ignoble performance of poorly scripted absurdity.
“If Labour Party and Peter Obi could win convincingly in a state like Lagos, a fiefdom of the APC candidate, Tinubu, querying Obi’s victory in his home state of Anambra, is absolutely hilarious and bewildering.”