Opposition Parties Allege Intimidation, Harassment In Abia

Mr Cassidy Agbai, Abia Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), said the opposition parties in the State were being harassed and intimidated.

He made the allegation in Umuahia on Thursday at a consultative forum organised by the INEC.

“We are not enjoying the level playing ground promised us by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Bala Hassan.

“We are chased out from every open space where we paid for to hold our rally.

“Our foot soldiers are not allowed into the markets to distribute our handbills and hold campaigns.

“This is not good enough for the democracy we are preaching because it is capable of breaching the peaceful conduct of the polls,” he said.

Agbai, who was supported by Community Party of Nigeria (CPN), CPC, PPA, ACN and LP, called on INEC and the security operatives to intervene.

He stressed that opposition parties should be given the opportunity to campaign and canvass for votes.

The governorship candidate of ANPP, Chief Bob Ogu, appealed to INEC to move the collation centres from the local government headquarters to police stations, saying that the councils were known points for election riggers.

The governorship candidate of ACN, Prince Paul Ikonne, said the political parties had a lot of job to do to avert the muster of rigging in 2011 elections.

“We should teach the people how to vote and vote rightly. Let political parties go home to learn to do it right.” Ikonne said.

Mrs Ngozi Uduma, Director National Orientation Agency (NOA), called for issues- based campaigns.

He advised the political parties and their candidates to avoid slandering one another but to concentrate on educating the electorate on what to do to make their votes meaningful.

Uduma expressed regrets that most party leaders and their supporters do not know the extant law governing the conduct of the forthcoming elections.

“If they understand it, they will not break the law because it had punitive sanctions,’’ he added.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Austin Okojie, urged the parties to play the game according to the rules.

Okojie explained that the state recorded huge success in the last voter registration, adding that it registered 1, 499,351 persons as against the 2006/2007 figure of 1, 380,539.

He, however, said that late arrival of materials and distribution, which had been the bane of previous polls, was being addressed.

He held that the decentralisation of distribution centres would reduce the problem to the barest minimum.