Delta Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has debunked allegation by the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) of massive vote rigging during the just concluded local polls in the State.
Okowa who made this known recently in an interview with reporters in Owa –Alero, Ika North East L.G.A, adjudged the election “as the freest and fairest elections so far in the State and in Nigeria at large”.
Governor Okowa attributed the success to the system adopted by INEC/DSIEC in the conduct of the elections.
According to him its success was largely due to the fact that accreditation was done side-by-side with voting, adding that this made the process very easy.
His words, “The voting pattern adopted by DSIEC is such that once you are accredited, you cast your vote and you go about other business unlike in the past when accreditation commences at 8.00 am and end at 12 noon before voting will commence; with this process, accreditation and voting continues from 8 am to 3 pm and you are expected to leave the voting centre immediately after casting your votes.”
On the allegation that the elections results were pre-prepared by PDP before the elections, saying, “It is unfortunate that some persons were not ready for the elections …, I personally led the campaign of the PDP round the 25 Local Government Areas of the state, even to areas I did not visit when I was campaigning for the governorship position and after that, the campaign from Ward to Ward, house to house continued while other political parties were not involved in any campaign.”
Okowa stated that the lack of preparation by the opposition parties was responsible for the allegations leveled against the PDP.
The Governor commended the electorate for conducting themselves well in the elections.
