The Anambra State chapter of All Progressive Congress (APC) has criticised the National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, over comments on the just concluded Anambra guber election.
Metuh had on Tuesday said that APC knocks INEC when it is losing and praises the commission when it is winning and described such comment as diversionary in the face of glaring facts of the conduct of Anambra elections known to the whole world.
However, the interim Publicity Secretary of APC in the state, Chief Okelo Madukaife, while addressing newsmen in Awka, said: ?Metuh?s comment is a manifestation of sycophancy to please Metuh?s superiors in PDP caught in an intricate web of anti-party conducts and undue influence over INEC.
?The mere fact that the position of the PDP, as expressed by Metuh contradicts what was expressed by the PDP candidate in the Anambra guber elections, Mr Tony Nwoye, who has called for the total cancellation of the election. It is indicative that the national body of the PDP lead by the president may not have been fully behind their candidate.
?Gladly, Metuh illustrated with Ondo State where his party fielded a candidate for the governorship elections, but instead supported the Labour Party candidate, Governor Olusegun Mimiko through the back door. He went further to claim that APC is coming third in Anambra State elections as it did in Ondo State.?
Okelo further argued that: ?The admission of INEC that its officers have colluded in election rigging, the confirmation of all observers, local and foreign that the election was a failure, the testimonies further emerging from the elections beyond the original confirmed flashpoints to all 21 local government areas means that the rigging plan which PDP used to short-change Ghali Umar Na?Aba in 2003 in favour of a ANPP candidate and Ifeanyi Ararume of Imo State in favour of Ikedi Ohakim, a PPA candidate in Imo State?s 2007 elections, may or may not necessarily work for the ?messed-up? (in Prof Attahiru Jega?s words) elections in Anambra State.
?However, while the issue of sincere support by the PDP a the national level to their own in the states remains their internal affair, what is unimpeachable is that APC stands for the principle of one, man one vote, which must count and all Anambra State citizens who are qualified to vote must be allowed to vote in a clean election for the results to be acceptable.
?Hence, it remains unacceptable to accommodate widespread manipulation using INEC officials, security agents, real and fake, which employed every possible vices found in Anambra State elections of the past to blur the future of Anambra youth, even if Metuh sells out his state on partisan considerations.
?It becomes laughable when Metuh opens a new vista to the rigging plan of PDP when it chose to use security agents to arrest election observers in a neighbouring state to Anambra, only to label them ?APC thugs?. Yet no charge is being pressed on these wonderful ?tag-wearing thugs?, with large number of highly educated women in their ranks.
?To conclude, we note that silence is better than the statement so far credited to PDP and Metuh on the Anambra State elections so far, even in the interest of his party.
?Once again we restate our resolve to rescue the rights of Anambra State people to freely and fairly choose their leader and run their state without being controlled remotely from Abuja or elsewhere, a migraine that was all but solved in 2003, until retrogressive elements, seeking to serve only the interest of powers outside the state regained control.?
