The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer for the Abia State governorship election, Prof. Nnenna Oti, says she was threatened to manipulate the poll results.
Oti, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), said she was also offered sum amount of money to manipulate the election results in favour of a political party.
She added that she remained resolute in the face of heavy intimidation and threats to ensure the will of the people of Abia State prevailed.
The FUTO VC said this while being welcomed by the management, staff, and students of the university in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Wednesday.
“As an electoral officer, I have never in my life participated in any election, but duty came calling, I made my enquiries from Abuja.
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“If I perish, I perish. They came with their threats, they came with their money, they came with their intimidation.
“I stand here before God, Jesus Christ. I have never defrauded anyone, all l I did was to declare the riot act as follows: Under me, votes must count. Under me, the people’s mandate will be upheld because I, Professor Nnnena Oti, can never do evil,” Oti said.
INEC had earlier suspended the collation of the March 18 gubernatorial election results for Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State following an attack on the commission’s office.
The electoral umpire later declared Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP) as the winner of the election.
The INEC Returning Officer declared that Otti polled 175,467 votes to defeat Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who garnered 88,529 votes.
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