The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in  Anambra State governorship election, Senator Chris Ngige has called for the total cancellation of the governorship election held in Anambra State, alleging that it was full of fraud.

He insisted that owing to the level of mindboggling
fraud in the election, the APC decided to boycott the election rescheduled to hold Sunday in  Idemili North, in the Obosi area.

Dr. Ngige , who, alongside other top officials of the APC in the state addressed  journalists in Awka, said the extent of  irregularities  observed in the election gave the entire exercise out as a mere charade that should cancelled.

“What we saw in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday was a re-enactment of the old INEC characteristics; the manipulation of voters register, removal voters’ names from the registers, and the removal of names of particular candidates from the voters register,” he said.

Ngige accused INEC of collaborating with the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state to rig the election to the detriment of democracy and   the rest of other candidates in the election.

He said in some places, INEC did not provide the election materials until around 4.30pm, 5.30 pm or 6.00pm when the voters must had got tired and left the polling centres. “In Idemili North local Government Area, election materials came around 4.30pm when the voters must have gone home. There were places where polling materials came around 5.30 or 6.00pm. In some places, voters’ names were missing from the voters’ register. It was a systematic and scientific way of removing the stronghold or settlements of the APC…they were cleared up,” he said.

He also alleged forceful removal of the APC  agents from polling centres in places like Nnewi South, Awka North, Ogbaru, Aniocha and parts of Orumba. “With these agents not in place, it was a field day for them(APGA),” he said.

But a chieftain and founding chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Joseph Okonkwo, who reacted to Ngige’s call for the cancellation of the election, said he participated in observing the election in the state, describing it as “very free, and transparent”. He added that nobody in his right mind would call for the cancellation of the election.

Chief Okonkwo , who was  an SA to the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in the second republic  said : “ Ngige ought to  have understood that he joined a wrong party that deported his kith and kin from Lagos state and should have expected nothing good to come out of that experience. The common man in Igbo land will continue to react to that unpatriotic act of Lagos state Governor, Bbabatunde Fashola.

“Ngige should not forget that he has not moved any motion in the senate nor seconded any one moved by his colleagues since he entered the senate. He shouldn’t have expected anything more than what he saw in the election