Orji Kalu Loses Senetorial Election in Abia State

 

A former governor of Abia State and Abia North senatorial candidate for the Progressive Peoples Alliance, Orji Kalu, came a distant third as the Independent National Electoral Commission, on Thursday, released the complete results of the March 28 National Assembly polls in the state.

In a comprehensive result sheet made available to our correspondent by the Public Relations Officer of INEC in Abia State, Edwin Inabor, Kalu came a distant third behind Mao Ohuabunwa of the Peoples Democratic Party and David Ogba of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Ohuabunwa secured 40,027 votes to win the elections, ahead of David Ogba of APGA who got 28, 055 votes and Kalu with 27, 002 votes.

However, the PPA, the APC and APGA, have before now contested the possible outcome of the results, alleging widespread manipulation and rigging.

Kalu, who had previously claimed victory in the polls, had in a petition to INEC dated March 29,

2015 alleged flagrant breach of Electoral Act 2010 in the conduct of the elections.

The petition, which was signed by Peter Njoku, and copied to the INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, rejected the possible outcome of the election on the grounds of failure of card readers, intimidation, and harassment of voters, snatching of ballot boxes, delay in the announcement of results at the various polling units, and gross mutilation of result sheets.

It also demanded the cancellation of the exercise and called for a re-run.

The petition read in part, “In the light of the above highlighted, we demand the outright cancellation of the elections and order a re-run of the exercise as allowing the outcome of the election will amount to daylight robbery of the people’s right to choose the representatives of their choice.”

Results for the federal constituencies were also released and the PDP won all federal constituency seats, except Aba North and South federal constituencies which were won by APGA.

Inabor refused to entertain questions on the issues surrounding the results, but our correspondent gathered that some of the results have been undergoing reviews because of the avalanche of complaints received by the commission concerning the exercise.