Enugu Election Observers Call For Investigation Into Attack On Their Colleagues

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…………as 70 political parties adjudge guber poll as peaceful, credible

Members
of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)-accredited
local and foreign Observers and Congress of Civil Society Organizations
in Nigeria, who monitored the March 9 Governorship and House of Assembly
Elections in Enugu State, have called on “the Federal Government,
Securities Agencies, the International Community and Human Rights
Organizations” to investigate and take action on “the brutal attack and
assault on our colleagues (observers) in Umuida, Enugu Ezike, Igbo-Eze
North Local Government Area, Enugu State by supporters of a candidate”.

It
was recently reported by members of Global Policy Advocate and
Leadership Initiative, accredited by INEC as observers, that they were
brutally attacked and humiliated by “thugs” at the residence of Senator
Ayogu Eze of the All Progressives Congress (APC), when they paid him a
visit to verify his alleged boycott of the election.

As a result
of the injury sustained from the attack, it was also reported that the
leader of the Team, Amaka Offor, fell seriously sick and fainted just a
few meters away from the Enugu Police Command, immediately they were
granted bail.

Reacting to the development, the independent
observers, who were represented by their group leaders, namely, Amb.
Samuel A. Onoja, Amb. Moses Ebahor, Rtn. Titus A. Alagba, Comr. Chidi
Chielo and Hon. Kingsley Muogo, while briefing newsmen on the outcome of
last Saturday’s elections in Enugu State, strongly condemned the
heinous act “in its entirety”, disclosing that the incident “would have
led to the death of our colleagues, who were exercising their legitimate
duty”.

“We, therefore, call on the federal government, security
agencies, the international community and human rights organizations to
intervene and investigate the unfortunate incident”, the observers
declared.

They described the governorship and state assembly
elections in Enugu State as “very peaceful, free and fair, and highly
commendable”, and went further to commend INEC, security agencies and
the state government for providing a level playing ground and security
“during and after the elections, as there was no issue of violence
recorded in any of the polling booths”.

In a related development,
70 political parties in Enugu State under the auspices of Coalition of
Registered Political Parties CRPP) during a post-election briefing on
the outcome of the governorship and House of Assembly elections,
debunked the allegation by The United Democratic Party (UDP) in the
state that the exercise was fraught with irregularities.

The
coalition, which comprised 40 out of the 42 political parties that
participated in the governorship election in Enugu State, stated that
there was no iota of truth in the allegation, stressing that “INEC
performed excellently in the conduct of the election”.

According
to them, “the allegation by one of the political parties, the United
Democratic Party (UDP) that there were irregularities during the
election is not true; it is totally false and baseless. The governorship
election as adjudged by the 70 political parties in Enugu State is the
most peaceful, free and fair election that has been conducted in the
state”.

The 70 political parties maintained that the exercise was
“very peaceful and meets the threshold of international best practices
of democratic elections”, disclosing that “the peaceful political
environment before, during and after the election was possible due to
the peace and security architecture put in place by the Governor of
Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi”.

The
coalition, therefore, congratulated Gov. Ugwuanyi for “his well-deserved
landslide victory” and appealed to other contestants to join hands with
him to move Enugu State “to a higher level of progress and
advancement”.

The coalition of governorship candidates in the state led by Gerald Abonyi of Labour Party (LP), yesterday paid Gov. Ugwuanyi a congratulatory visit at the Government House, Enugu where they expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the election and pledged to support his administration.

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