I Was Threatened, Pressurised To Manipulate Results – Abia INEC Returning Officer Oti Narrates Ordeal

The returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Abia Governorate election, Professor Nnenna Oti, has revealed that she was financially incentivized to manipulate the election results.
Before Alex Oti was declared governor-elect last Wednesday, the collection of results by the Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA) was briefly suspended by INEC, causing tension between voters and stakeholders in the state.

Oti, who is also the vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, revealed this on Tuesday when greeted by the university’s board of directors, staff, and students.

She said that before announcing the final results, she was promised huge financial incentives to change the will and mission of the Abian people, but she remained resolute in the face of threats. menacing and serious threats.

“As an electoral officer, I have never in my life participated in any election, but duty came calling, I made my inquiries from Abuja,” Oti said.

“If I perish, I perish, they came with their threats, they came with their money, they came with their intimidation.”

She said that she holds to her ideals and principles of not harming anyone and ensuring that the will of the Abian people prevails and their votes count in the election.

“I didn’t start today; I stand here before God, Jesus Christ. I have never defrauded anyone, all l I did was to declare the riot act as follows: Under me, votes must count. Under me, the people’s mandate will be upheld because I, Professor Nnnena Oti, can never do evil,” she said.

The declared results by the returning officer saw the labor party (LP) candidate, Alex Otti totaling 175,467 to Okey Ahiwe and Enyinnaya Nwafor scoring 88,529 and 28,972 respectively.