The Warri Chapter of the Ambrose Alli University Alumni Association has called for the outright cancellation of the recently conducted National Executive Council election of the Association on the ground of over voting,rigging and compromise by the electoral body which midwifed the electoral process.
The election conducted on October 30,2020 in Ekpoma,Edo State during the 14th National Convention and Annual General Meeting of the Alumni body returned all the NEC members except the offices of the Assistant Secretary General and Ex Officio that were conducted for.
The Election Agent to Engineer Pedro Odafe Eruesegbefe, the candidate for the position of Assistant General Secretary Mr Frank Miller who is also the Vice Chairman of AAU Alumni Warri Chapter, said there were obvious electoral malpractices hence the result was vehemently rejected. He noted that 52 persons were registered as delegates for the convention while 50 delegates were accredited for voting.
He said the position of Assistant Secretary General was keenly contested for by Engineer Pedro Odafe Eruesegbefe of Warri Chapter and Vincent Owhofadjeke of Asaba Chapter.
After the initial collation and computation of the result,the declared result showed that Engineer Pedro Odafe Eruesegbefe polled 22 votes while Vinvent Owhofadjeke polled 21 votes with 6 voided votes”
According to him “shortly after the Chairman of the Electoral Committee,Donald Osifoh declared the results in favour of Engr. Pedro Edafe Eruesegbefe, the Election chairman claimed that two ballot papers in favour of Vincent Owhofadjeke were found in a separate ballot box”.
Mr Frank Miller said it was at this stage that he rejected the declared results on the ground that there was foul play since the total accredited voters (50) was less than the total number of result declared (51).
He rejected the result in its entirety and urged the electoral committee not to declare the other candidate the winner because of the obvious discrepancies in the the total acredited voters and number of votes cast. The Electoral Chairman, Donald Osifoh went ahead to declare Vincent Owhofadjeke as the winner.
Consequent upon this development, Mr Miller said the vibrant Warri Chapter has decided to remedy this Injustice done to it’s member through all legal means.
Engineer Pedro Eruesegbefe has also vowed to reclaim his stolen mandate with all legitimate means and expressed worry that an election with only 50 accredited voters, could not be conducted in a free and fair manner.