War of Words: Chuky Dandy wants Inec to declare him winner; Nwokolo disagrees

The controversy surrounding the National Assembly
elections in Delta State heightened on Monday as the Democratic Peoples
Party and the Accord Party claimed victory in the Ika Federal
Constituency election.While the DPP candidate, Mr.
Festus Chukwuyem, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to
immediately declare him the winner of the election, his counterpart in
the Accord Party, Mr Victor Nwokolo, demanded that the INEC should
compel the Returning Officer, Dr Godwin Avwioro, to officially declare
the results.The elections have been controversial,
following the returning officer’s allegation that he was forced by the
supporters of the Accord Party to sign the result sheets and announce
the inconclusive results in favour of the party.But while
addressing journalists in Asaba, the Delta State capital, Chukwuyem
demanded the immediate arrest of the Accord Party’s supporters, who
compelled the Awhioro to announce the results.Chukwuyem
said, “If INEC should announce the results, outside the cancelled
results, I will still win and I will be declared winner. But if they
want to have a rerun, let them fix a date for it.“Right
now my confidence in INEC is shaky because there is no way the names of
the corps members could have been substituted without the active
connivance of the electoral body, and I am saying that everyone who was
involved in messing up the election should be investigated and sent to
jail’’.He warned that violence might erupt in the place
again if the perpetrators were not brought to book, adding that his
supporters would hold a protest march to air their grievances soon.But
Nwokolo disagreed that the DPP candidate won, saying, “The election was
peaceful, free and fair. The collated results from the units through
the wards to the local government were ratified by the appropriate
authorities and the political parties involved.“The
candidate, who pushed me out of the PDP is out to frustrate me through a
vicious propaganda of falsehood and intimidation and he is calling for
the cancellation of the results.”