February 6, 2010
Saharareporters is projecting that incumbent Governor Peter Obi of Anambra is set to win statewide polls held on Saturday February 6, 2010 in Anambra State in the southeastern region of Nigeria. An Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) result obtained by our correspondent shows that official tally of votes point to Mr. Obi as the winner of the governorship election, despite logistical stumbling blocks deliberately created by top officials of the commission.
The election was widely regarded as a mirror into the general elections scheduled for 2011 in Nigeria.
According to our sources, Mr. Obi, who ran under the ticket of APGA, is comfortably leading in 11 local government areas. According to ballots tallies from polling booths across the state, the APGA candidate leads comfortably in Awka North, Awka South, Orumba South, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ogbaru, Anaocha, Ihiala, Njikoka, Ekwusigo, Anambra West, and Nnewi South.
In a stunning blow, Obi trounced Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of the PDP, in the latter’s local government area. Mr. Soludo had used his thugs to snatch ballot boxes in a few polling centers, but his effort to rig the polls became a woeful failure.
In several reports, Saharareporters had revealed plans by INEC chairman Maurice Iwu and Victor Chukwuani, one of his commissioners and close associates, to rig the election for Andy Uba (of the Labour Party) and Mrs. Uchenna Ekwunife (of PPA) respectively.
Our sources within INEC disclosed that uncooperative security agents thwarted plans by the two INEC officials to manipulate the election.
Iwu, whose conduct of the 2007 elections drew universal condemnation, has a history of fraud dating to his graduate studies in pharmacy at Bradford University in the UK.
Saharareporters has published an expose detailing how Iwu lied to the university that he obtained a “first degree from a university in Cameroon”. Chukwuani, who has a reputation as one of the sleaziest commissioners at INEC, is described by INEC insiders as romantically tied to Mrs. Ekwunife. “He promised Mrs. Ekwunife that he was going to deliver Anambra to her,” said a source in the PPA, adding that the controversial female candidate was still in shock about “being abandoned.” Ekwunife amassed a huge financial fortune in the early 2000s when, as a banker, she began an affair with then Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
The election was particularly marred by voter register errors. A substantial number of voters who turned out to vote could not find their names in the voters register provided by INEC even though their names were contained in earlier voter registers displayed across the state.
Saharareporters learnt that some INEC officials, working in concert with PDP candidate Charles Soludo, had tinkered with the voter registers a few days to the polls to make room for the announcement of fraudulent results during the collation of results.
INEC officials in Awka told Saharareporters that the commission was still collating official results, which are likely to be announced early tomorrow.
The election was widely regarded as a mirror into the general elections scheduled for 2011 in Nigeria.
According to our sources, Mr. Obi, who ran under the ticket of APGA, is comfortably leading in 11 local government areas. According to ballots tallies from polling booths across the state, the APGA candidate leads comfortably in Awka North, Awka South, Orumba South, Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ogbaru, Anaocha, Ihiala, Njikoka, Ekwusigo, Anambra West, and Nnewi South.
In a stunning blow, Obi trounced Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of the PDP, in the latter’s local government area. Mr. Soludo had used his thugs to snatch ballot boxes in a few polling centers, but his effort to rig the polls became a woeful failure.
In several reports, Saharareporters had revealed plans by INEC chairman Maurice Iwu and Victor Chukwuani, one of his commissioners and close associates, to rig the election for Andy Uba (of the Labour Party) and Mrs. Uchenna Ekwunife (of PPA) respectively.
Our sources within INEC disclosed that uncooperative security agents thwarted plans by the two INEC officials to manipulate the election.
Iwu, whose conduct of the 2007 elections drew universal condemnation, has a history of fraud dating to his graduate studies in pharmacy at Bradford University in the UK.
Saharareporters has published an expose detailing how Iwu lied to the university that he obtained a “first degree from a university in Cameroon”. Chukwuani, who has a reputation as one of the sleaziest commissioners at INEC, is described by INEC insiders as romantically tied to Mrs. Ekwunife. “He promised Mrs. Ekwunife that he was going to deliver Anambra to her,” said a source in the PPA, adding that the controversial female candidate was still in shock about “being abandoned.” Ekwunife amassed a huge financial fortune in the early 2000s when, as a banker, she began an affair with then Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
The election was particularly marred by voter register errors. A substantial number of voters who turned out to vote could not find their names in the voters register provided by INEC even though their names were contained in earlier voter registers displayed across the state.
Saharareporters learnt that some INEC officials, working in concert with PDP candidate Charles Soludo, had tinkered with the voter registers a few days to the polls to make room for the announcement of fraudulent results during the collation of results.
INEC officials in Awka told Saharareporters that the commission was still collating official results, which are likely to be announced early tomorrow.
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