For the third time, rerun-election into the Enugu South Urban Constituency election, has been stalled.
This is because the PDP Candidate for the election, Chief Sam Ngene and his supporters insisted that his opponent, Mr Bright Ngene (LP) should not be on the ballot.
In short, Sam Ngene said he should be declared winner of the election.
He insisted that Ngene is currently in the custodial centre.
Prior to the re-run, Bright Ngene (LP) had scored over 4,000 votes, while Sam Ngene (PDP) had scored over 2,000 votes but court ordered a re-run within eight wards.
Apart from insisting that Ngene should not be on the ballot, having been incarcerated over a communal crisis, Sam Ngene accused the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji of meddlesomeness.
He pointedly accused the Minister who came with the Senator representing Enugu East, Sen. Kelvin Chukwu and Rep. Chimobi Atu, member representing Enugu North/South Federal Constituency, to the venue, of flooding the place with thugs.
But reacting to Sam Ngene ‘s accusation that he brought thugs and should not have been seen around, Nnaji insisted that he ought to be there because he is a minister representing Enugu State and the same time, an agent of his party, APC, for the election.
“There is no way anybody can say the minister of the Federal Government representing a state stormed into the venue of election. Is it not laughable? So, that will show you the level of their intelligence.
“This place does not have to be my Constituency. I am the leader of APC in the state. On that basis, I am the polling unit agent of the APC here, you can see my tag. I am here rightfully.
” Anybody that is saying that I am not supposed to be here lacks understanding.”
Denying that he did not come with any thugs, Nnaji said: “I don’t go with hoodlums, I carry police men, army, DSS. These are people that are friendly to the public. These are people that are mandated by law to protect lives and property. That is what I use.
“The message is that there is no way they can win this election. What is expected of their leader in the state is to throw in the towel.
“What happened in the governorship election will not happen and it is not going to happen in this election. The normal thing is that after an election, they find a way to turn it around.
“Nobody can turn this one. We’ll keep coming here. If they don’t finish, we’ll be coming. If the don’t finish today, we’ll stay here till tomorrow,” he declared.
However, Chief Sam Ngene (PDP) insisted that the minister should not have come to the venue of the election at all.
“My name is Sam Ngene and I am the PDP candidate for this election. The truth is that if you look properly, there is a strong mobilisation for this election.
“We are here as PDP to conduct this election because we know that this is my stronghold, this is my ward and my polling unit. It is one of the places that had this problem.
“But the truth is that on the first time, second time and even, now you can see that there are infiltrators..
“They should do the needful. The Constitution is very clear on this matter. If you are convicted or if you are an ex- convict, you cannot stand for any election. You cannot even vote. You have lost your freedom completely,” he said, pointing out the best option is to declare him winner.
Before everybody dispersed in the evening around 4pm, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Dr. Chukwuemeka Chukwu, had pleaded that the election should be allowed to hold but to no avail.
He pleaded with both parties to allow peace to reign having come to conduct the same election on two different occasions.
“So the members of the public, the people of Enugu, I am pleading with all of you to kindly allow us to conclude this process today. This is my prayer, all of us let us behave ourselves, whether you are whatever, from any rank you have in society. This is the fourth time we are coming for this election. I am pleading with you. I don’t know why this place is even crowded. It is not supposed to be , so I am pleading with you, I am begging who is who in Enugu State let us not cause problem in this election. Please that is my prayer and that is my request,” he pleaded.
