There’s tension in Abia — release guber election results, Otti supporters tell INEC

A support group of Alex Otti, candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Abia, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to douse tension in the state by releasing the governorship election result.

On Monday, INEC suspended the collation of results in Abia after thugs invaded the commission’s office in Obingwa LGA.

At the time collation was halted, Otti was reportedly in the lead after garnering over 80,000 votes.

In a statement on Tuesday, the support group said INEC should expedite the review of the process.

“INEC informed the world in a press release that the process of declaring the results in Abia was being suspended due to the invasion of their office in Obingwa on Sunday 19th March 2023, by suspected thugs who also held their officials hostage for hours,” it said.

“Their decision made sense to us like all other interested parties, and so we kept quiet. But events that have been playing out since yesterday are now giving us cause for serious concern.

“We think the process of review seems to be taking too long and is opaque, thereby leaving the candidates, especially Mazi Alex Otti, who already has a clear and unassailable lead, and his supporters in a state of anxiety.

“We are calling on the INEC Leadership to expedite the review process and move forward with the announcement of the outcome as the original results of all the local government areas, including Obingwa are already known to the world as captured on the INEC server, after being uploaded at the various polling units by their ad hoc staff, with all the various party agents possessing copies.

“We hope INEC as a supposedly independent body will do the right thing and expeditiously, too, in order to douse the unnecessarily generated tension in Abia state and beyond.”

The statement was signed by BenjaminOwuapu Willie, Eustace Odunze, Uloma Saya-Braide, Emeka Wigwe, Soala Edwinson Iyalla, Kobi Emmanuella-King, Rita Poroma, and Oteh Dafiaghor.