The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in last Saturday’s by-election for Anambra South Senatorial zone, Barrister Donald Chidi Amamgbo has opened up on what transpired during the exercise, fingering the State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for conniving to disenfranchise the electorate in the zone.
Recall that the INEC had announced Chief Emma Nwachukwu of the APGA winner of the election, placing Amamgbo at a distant third.
In an exclusive media chat in Awka on Tuesday, Barr Amamgbo described the exercise as a dangerous pattern of systemic sabotage, desecration of all democratic norms, collusion, and deliberate disenfranchisement that threatens the nation’s democracy.
Noting that elections are meant to be the ultimate expression of the people’s will, Amamgbo regretted that Saturday’s by-election was instead a carefully-orchestrated charade designed to suffocate and decimate the people’s voice and choice, while ultimately undermining the credibility of the process.
He revealed how, on the eve of the elections, the INEC allegedly withheld the tags for the party’s ward and local government collation agents, effectively crippling ADC’s ability to defend the votes of its supporters at all critical stages of collation.
The reason, he noted, was to disillusion and debase ADC, the primary opposition party in Nigeria.
“Look no further than the loquacious and bombastic statement of Professor Charles Soludo that ‘Labor and ADC parties are dead in Anambra’. If that was so, then Anambra South is an electoral crime scene, and Professor Soludo’s election malfeasance is directly to blame.
“In Ihiala, INEC went further by circulating a doctored list of polling agents that did not correspond with the authentic list duly submitted by our party and uploaded on the INEC portal. These are not mistakes. They are not clerical oversights. They are acts of sabotage,” he said.
Amamgbo queried how an election can be free and fair when one party is denied collation agents, likening it to ‘asking a team to play football blindfolded while the referee looks the other way.’
He accused the APGA government in the state of normalizing vote buying and weaponizing hunger to exploit the already-subdued Anambra people.
According to him, the election produced a puppet Senator-elect, tethered to the control of the Governor, insisting that Anambra South people do not need a puppet senator, but an independent voice who owes allegiance only to the people, not to any godfather or governor.
He maintained that the victims of the electoral malpractice were not him or the ADC, but the people of Anambra South, who were denied the chance to elect a candidate who campaigned transparently, funded his own movement, made no deals with godfathers, and pledged to serve the people.
“When you deny the people their choice, you deny them justice. When you destroy faith in the ballot, you destroy democracy itself. Every time this happens, our children pay the price. A society that starves its people of hope cannot prosper.
“This election must not be swept under the carpet as ‘one of those things.’
“Today, I call for a thorough review of the entire electoral process in Anambra South to expose and address the sabotage that took place. I advocate institutional reforms within INEC to guarantee independence, transparency, and accountability.
“There should also be proper voter and agent education, so that our people can understand their rights, defend their votes, and resist manipulation, while there should be an end to the culture of collusion where political parties, godfathers, and electoral umpires work hand-in-hand to suppress genuine democratic choice.
“Democracy is not a favour given to the people; it is their right. The mandate of our people cannot continue to be stolen through systemic sabotage and manipulation,” he noted.
Amamgbo, who noted that he has not filed any legal proceedings against the exercise, said he still needs time to process the entire exercise and spend precious time with his family before deciding the next steps to take.
