Enugu guber: APGA candidate, Nweke denies stepping down for Ubah

A week to the governorship election, the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance Frank Nweke has denied media report that he has stepped down for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Barrister Peter Mbah.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday at his campaign office in Enugu, Nweke said he never stepped down for anyone and insisted that he remain a man to beat.

He urged the public to ignore reports making round, adding that purveyors of the fake report are afraid of him.
“I will begin with addressing the upsurge of fake news, misinformation and the misrepresentation of my character in the media As I shared in my statement yesterday. I believe that calumny, fake news and character assassinations are disrespectful to our people who face real and dire challenges in their everyday lives.

“Those who spread such falsehood have no interest in service but desire to keep Enugu in a web of lies and ineptitude. Therefore, will address these issues summarily. Yesterday, an attention seeking propagandist reported that I stepped down for the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Peter Mbah
“Please, tell everyone you know, that Frank Nweke Jr is in this governorship race to win it for the good of Enugu,” he said.

Speaking on Enugu State PDP’s plan to disrupt the State General Election of March 11, 2023, Nweke said that PDP have compromised the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, warning that they will not take lightly any plan to subvert or abuse the democratic process.

“I am compelled to bring to the attention of the public the grand and devious plans of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State to compromise INEC officials and adhoc staff to bypass the use of BVAS and generally disrupt the governorship and house of assembly elections in the state through the use of thugs to cause mayhem. with a view to dispersing voters at polling units in order to have opportunity to rig the elections, subvert the will of the people to achieve victory at all costs.

“Since suffering massive losses across the state on February 25, 2023, the PDP have held series of meetings at various locations to perfect their nefarious plans to ensure that they disrupt the electoral process, compromise INEC staff and deploy maximum violence.

“A source that attended the meetings reported that they lamented that they were falsely led into believing that BVAS was impregnable by INEC and that manual voting was impossible.

“According to them events in Port Harcourt and some parts of the country had demonstrated otherwise, and that they must now take advantage of it by deploying sums of money to compromise INEC staff, buy votes and cause maximum violence to scare voters who do not vote for them and intimidate others into voting for them against their will.
“They have therefore resolved to buy INEC staff to sabotage the elections as described above, and also to specifically ensure that the original result sheets are neither brought to the polling units nor the ward and local government collation centres.

“Since the iREV malfunctioned last Saturday, they reasoned that they would calmly write new results when the representatives of other political parties disperse at various collation centres in the belief that results had been announced.

“The compromised INEC team is led by a staff of INEC called ‘Ifenna Onoh’ who for several years has been the liaison between the State government and in particular, the Chief of Staff, Enugu Government House and INEC officials. It would appear that the relationship has been groomed for years in preparation for this election.
“It was reported that Mrs Ifenna Onoh has been a beneficiary of land allocations, and pilgrimage allocations and in exchange, has succeeded in recruiting staff for the benefit of the governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, particularly into the ICT department.

“We have also been informed that sums running into hundreds of millions have been exchanged over the years and through third-party agents to conceal the money trail. Mrs Onoh is therefore under obligation to do everything in her power to ensure the declaration of Peter Mbah as the next Governor of Enugu State,” he said.
According to him, currently, INEC maintains a secret office at Fontana Hotels located at Independence Layout for the purpose of rigging election.

“They have also produced Security Systems Uniforms for thugs to disguise as escorts to INEC personnel from the point of dispatch to a pre-arranged location where rigging will be carried out using the non-collected PVCs of voters across the 17 Local Government Areas.

“The above information has been shared with the National Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, the State Security Service, the Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Defence staff and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

“The purpose of this revelation is to let Ndi-Enugu know that the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Enugu will do all that is possible to guarantee the safety of our people. Ensure that you exercise your right to vote on March 11 and see that your vote is protected,” he said.

On the purported endorsement and congratulatory message to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nweke Jr, denied endorsing him, saying it was absolutely false and concocted from the imagination of mischievous Individual, adding that he is Obidient and believe on competent of Peter Obi.

“I can confirm that it is absolutely false and concocted from the imagination of a mischievous individual. have never hidden the fact that I support Peter Obi and as have often said, I am Frankly Obidient. My position on who I believe is most competent to lead our nation has not changed,” he said,