The former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, and the erstwhile Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Chief Victor Ochei, on Monday exchanged blows at the Oshimili South Local Government Area Office of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
This is no thanks to the alleged fraud dotting the senatorial election results being collated at the area office.
While Ochei, who dumped PDP for Accord Party to contest the Delta North Senatorial District seat, cried foul, and Nwaoboshi was battling to have the results declared at all cost and asking Ochei to meet him in court thereafter, the Delta Central Senatorial District results had been placed on suspension.
At the Delta Central, Ovie Omo-Agege, who dumped PDP to team up with Chief Great Ogboru of the Labour Party, held Chief Ighoyota Amori of the ruling party at the throat over the senatorial seat.
Announcing the suspension of the Delta Central results, the Returning Officer of the senatorial district, Prof. Greg Okagbare, said the suspension of the result collation was occasioned by protest against the exercise.
Okagbare said: “Some people are not satisfied with the results that we are collating.
“I have decided to stay action on the collation till I get further directive because they said there is need for them to seek clarification and look at the basic information that led to the final figures we are collating.”
Meanwhile, the state governorship and Delta Central senatorial candidate of the Labour Party, Ogboru and Ovie-Omo-Agege, in company of hundreds of their supporters stormed the INEC collation centre at Ughelli in protest against the alleged manipulation of the National Assembly election result in the district.
Chief Ogboru, who addressed journalists, said: “We came here to make complaints to the Returning Officer because what they have here is not the result that the electorates casted their votes for.
“We are appealing the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to change all the Electoral Officers in the state before the governorship elections. If the commission as the electoral umpire fails to do this, my party would decide the next line of action at the end of the day.”
On his part, Omo-Agege said: “I am here to make sure that the right thing is done.
Elections were supposedly held on Saturday and the PDP have been turning in results in areas were elections were not conducted. The Returning Officer has suspended collation of results for now and that is what we demanded.
“For the collation to continue, the card reader must be interrogated. They must also produce some of the sensitive forms and they should invite all the candidates and we sit down together and we go through the ballot papers and anybody who wins, let him win. We just want the right thing to be done.”
On his part, the All Progressives Congress agent for Delta Central, Chief Ogbon Ogbarode, said: “We are in agreement with suspension of the result collation having notices series of irregularities in the result sheets presented by the RO.”
Irked that the fraud, especially the ones confirmed by the Returning Officer in Ukwuani Local Government Area, simply identified as Mrs. Egolu, was about to be admitted, Ochei flared up.
While insisting that the fraud would not stand, Nwaoboshi, who was anxious to be declared as the winner, told him to admit being a neophyte in the politics of the state.
The face-off soon dovetailed into serious argument as the duo of Ochei and Nwaoboshi hurled printable and unprintable words such as “you are a bastard”, “Do you know your father and mother”, “keep quiet you this bloody fool, idiot” showered on each other.
But the moment the Returning Office owned up to the fraud, saying, “Yes, there were fraud in four Wards in the council area because the Presiding Officers tampered with the results”, the whole council area results were placed on suspension.
The crisis that erupted thereafter was dragged to the INEC headquarters in Asaba where it was discovered that instead of the senatorial result sheets, the yet to be conducted House of Assembly result sheets were used.
In a related development, commercial activities were brought to a halt for several hours in Ughelli metropolises as irate youths barricaded major streets in protest against the collation exercise.
It took the timely intervention of men of the 222 battalion, Agbarha-Otor to restore peace to the area.
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