It is good news that Arochukwu was not denied the opportunity to have one of its own sons in high political office this season. Of the three elective positions we were competing for, we lost two and it is only comforting that God granted us the grace not to go empty handed. Glory be to His name. I had made a passionate appeal to Umuaro in this column in the last special edition urging us to go out and support our own son, Senator Mao Arukwe Ohuabunwa in the senatorial re-run scheduled for March, 5, 2016.
I had complained that Umuaro did not treat Mao fairly in the first senatorial elections in March 2015 for mostly untenable prejudices. Mao won that election mostly by votes from outside Arochukwu and this caused deep pains and created a major division in political Arochukwu. I opined that the re-run was a divine opportunity to correct that anomaly and reunite Arochukwu politically. I therefore drew attention to a few of the things Mao did for Aro and the entire Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal constituency from 1999-2007 to correct the misinformation that was being circulated by political opponents. That effort and those made by some other people helped to open the eyes of many to the truth and helped to change their positions. Thanks be to God, the elections held as scheduled and Senator Mao won.
I therefore wish to draw attention to certain matters relating to theelections. First, let us look at the detailed result of the election from the five LGAs that make up the Abia North Senatorial District as shown below and draw out some facts, trends and abnormalities.
Senator Mao actually won the elections evenly across the five local governments in the district as the table above shows except for the abnormality in Bende LGA.
Unlike in the last election, he won in Arochukwu town and also in the entire Arochukwu LGA, which is cheering. Indeed he won in all the pooling booths in Arochukwu town except for two or three in Obinkita and Oror villages.
All the parties had somewhat even spread across each LGA expect PPA’s votes in Bende which was abnormal and out of sync.PDP scores ranged between a low of 3306 (Isuikwuato) to a high of 6101(Ohafia); APGA votes ranged from a low of 1714 (Isuikwuato) to a high of 3728 (Umunneochi); APC votes ranged from a low of 36 votes (Isuikwuato) to a high of 269 (Umunneochi), generally reflecting the overal low voter turnout. But PPA votes ranged from a low of 1878 (Umunneochi) to an absurd high of 14,300 votes (Bende).
It is clear that the PPA votes tally in Bende was massively inflated after the elections had concluded at the pooling booths. 14,300 votes in only one LGA while its total votes in the other four LGAs was only 11,514.
No other party or candidate had that kind of exaggerated ‘local support’ except Orji Uzor Kalu in his Bende LGA. Mao from Arochukwu scored his highest votes (6101) in Ohafia, Bourdex from Ohafia scored his highest votes in Umunneochi (3728) and Lancaster from Arochukwu scored her biggest votes in Umunneochi( 269). Evidence abounds that those Bende votes were forged as they do not agree with the records from the polling booths. PPA tried to inflate their score in Bende with the alleged connivance of some compromised electoral officials in an effort to try and wipe out its losses in the entire district.
Indeed authentic records show that PDP won the two wards in Igbere- Orji Uzor Kalu’s hometown and won the entire Bende with comparative margins as in the other four LGAs.
Mao actually won the election by a margin of 195 votes and only because of God’s intervention that prevented PPA and Orji Uzor Kalu from adding another 196 votes to the doctored and manipulated Bende votes. They had tried to compromise virtually all the agencies with ill gotten money, so much so that it seemed there was no one who could have stopped them except God. And God did it in a classical manner that confounded Orji and his co- conspirators.
From the above analysis of the facts of the election the following matters therefore arise:
It is clear that a greater number of Umuaro came out to vote for their son this time which is praise worthy. But Mao only scored 45% of the entire valid votes cast in Arochukwu LGA. 32% of the votes went to Orji Uzor Kalu. It is still worrisome that such large number of people would vote for Orji in Arochukwu LGA. I would wish to engage with such people and try to understand their reason for voting for a man who ruled Abia State for nearly 12 years (8years directly and 4 years indirectly) and did not rebuild our roads, nor rehabilitate our hospitals and schools, that did not build any market or civic centre or hall nor gave scholarship to our children, did not care for our elders but brought suffering and death to Aro. Many of our leading political lights who worked for him died in mysterious circumstances. I need to understand why any true nwa Aro or any true Arochukwu LGA resident would refuse to vote for Mao for the senate or even for our sister Nma Lancaster Okoro but rather gave their votes to Orji Uzor. I need to understand the motivation. Is it essentially pecuniary or could be just petty jealousy or what? I hope I can get the opportunity to discuss with such people.
Orji Uzor Kalu used his newspapers – The Sun and the Daily Telegraph to campaign and has been using it effectively to give the wrong impression of what transpired at the elections. The notorious chief rigger is accusing others of rigging. This piece is written for the purpose of putting the records straight. Because all the wrong information that was allowed to go unchallenged for a long time got believed by some Umuaro. It is my hope that Umuaro will be in a position to debunk the false stories he is dishing out. If he goes to court as he has threatened, then he will explain to the Judges how he cooked up 14,300 votes in one LGA- Bende, allocating over 5000 votes to the Umuimenyi/Nkpa ward indicating nearly 100% voter turnout whereas the average voter turnout in the entire re-run was below 30%.
It has been a long drawn battle, we all need to close ranks now, show our appreciation to God who defeated our political enemy and gave us supernatural victory, and support Mao to go and continue the good work which he has started in the Senate for the good of Arochukwu and the entire Abia North senatorial district.
In conclusion, my unqualified gratitude goes to all who labored and allowed themselves to be used by God to bring His will to manifest. My personal thanks go to the Ndi Eze in the LGA and Ndi Eze Ogo Aro who did yeomen’s job in mobilizing support for the Aro agenda; the members of the Aro Political forum, the youths, especially the Abia New Generation Youths (ANGY), the women, the Aro ministers and all the stakeholder groups that worked with us to generate support for Mao. Though this medium addresses mostly Umuaro, I must on behalf of all of us thank the people of Umunneochi, Isuikwuato, Ohafia and Bende who gave our son unflinching support. And have consistently done so. May God bless every one who played one role or the other, openly or in secret. Our God will reward every one according to their works and more importantly enable Abia North to achieve its aspirations.
Lastly, let me ask all who read this piece to spare one minute and raise praise and thanks to our Almighty God who confounded and confused the political enemy and gave us divinely mandated victory. Let it be known that without His intervention the story will have been different, because the opponent threw in everything into this contest, and wanted to win by All means. To our God therefore be all the Glory, Honour and Majesty.
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