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By John Azu
The Senator representing Delta North, Ned Nwoko has described the process that led to his purported loss of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as partial “theatre of fraud.”
Nwoko, who made this known in Abuja on Friday during a news briefing, said the May 18 primary was devoid of honest standard, free, fair, credible, or transparent.
An associate of Nwoko, Dr Chris Onyemaechi Okobah, who stood in for the senator, alleged that the “political fraud was dressed in party colours” and presented results of the primary despite an alternative which showed that Nwoko polled 23,000 to Okowa’s 5,000.
Okobah said they have video evidence, agents’ reports and ward-level records showing what really happened in the entire senatorial district.
“The result being circulated by the state government and its compromised agents is therefore unacceptable, morally defective, and democratically worthless,” he said.
He added that Okowa ought not to have been cleared by the party screening committee before the primary due to several issues surrounding his stewardship as governor.
Okobah said the outcome of the primaries across the state was “a recipe for disaster” as it could solidify opposition base and affect the performance of the party in Delta State against Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and President Bola Tinubu.
Announcing the results of the primaries, the APC returning officer, Johnbull Tonukari, declared Mr Okowa winner with 113,309 votes in the exercise, while Nwoko allegedly had 2,612 votes, while Ms Ali polled 40 votes.