INEC issued certificate of return for inconclusive election —Abia PDP

THE Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the certificate of return in possession of Dr Uche Ogah as having been issued to him in error by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC had predicated its decision to present Ogar with the certificate on the order of a Federal High Court in Abuja sacking Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of the state.

But speaking to journalists on Friday in Umuahia, the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Don Ubani, said the party observed discrepancies in the copy of the certificate of return issued to Ogah by INEC.

“You will recall that two elections took place in April 2015 in Abia State. The first was the election of April 11 and, of course, the PDP candidate, who was Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had a very large margin to his advantage but for reasons known to INEC, they started being mischievous right from the word ‘go’ in declaring that election inconclusive.

“Today, we have two certificates of return. One is said to have been given to Uche Ogah that we believe was issued in error because there was no basis for it. The other one is that which was rightly given to the occupant of the governorship seat in Abia State and that is Dr Okezie Ikpeazu,” Ubani said.

He said further that Governor Ikpeazu was declared winner in the rerun election that was held on 25 April which prompted INEC to issue the governor a certificate of return.

He then wondered which election date INEC considered in issuing Ogah the certificate.

According to him, “the one issued to Dr Ogah has on it the 11th April 2015 date, whereas that of Governor Ikpeazu has on it the 11th and 25th April dates in which INEC considered the results obtained before declaring Governor Ikpeazu winner of that governorship election.”