Abia PDP accuses INEC of double standard !

The Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat at last Saturday’s presidential poll.

The Chairman of PDP in the state, Senator Emma Nwaka, who addressed journalists on Wednesday in Umuahia on the outcome of the elections, said Jonathan had by conceding defeat distinguished himself as “an icon of peace.”

He said the President had by his peaceful disposition demonstrated that he valued Nigeria’s peace and unity more than his personal interest. Nwaka called on the nation’s leaders to emulate him. Nwaka, however, blamed Jonathan’s electoral misfortunes on the Independent National Electoral Commission, which he accused of introducing two different rules for the polls.

He argued that whereas voters in the South, a region considered Jonathan’s stronghold   were strictly adhering to the use of card readers for accreditation, manual accreditation was allowed for voters in the North.  This, he said, accounted for the low number of accredited voters recorded in the South during the polls, a situation he said gave Buhari an edge over Jonathan.

He argued that if the massive number of voters who trooped out in the South to vote but could not be accredited following the failure of card readers were allowed to vote, Jonathan would have won.  Nwaka described the card reader as a huge disaster but urged the PDP faithful to remain calm and steadfast in their support for the party.

On the continued delay in announcing the result of the Abia North senatorial election , Nwaka called on INEC to declare the winner of the contest without any further delay so as not to undermine the integrity of the exercise. He claimed that the PDP candidate had been declared winner in four out of the five councils in the zone by the collation officers, and urged INEC to declare him winner.

Nwaka said it was unacceptable for INEC to fail to declare the winner of the contest four days after the poll.