The Returning Officer for last Saturday’s Anambra South senatorial election, Prof. Meshach Umenweke, has denied he declared the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Ifeanyi Ubah, winner of the election under duress.
Dismissing the report as falsehood, Umenweke said
“No gun or knife was pointed at me at the material time of the election results announcement.”
It would be recalled that it was reported that Umenweke, in a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), claimed the election was inconclusive. He was said to have added that he was forced to declare Ubah the winner.
But Umenweke of the Department of Public and Private Law at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, in a statement on Thursday, said he did not announce the election results under duress.
The statement read,
“Notwithstanding the contents of my letter dated the 25th of February, 2019, I never at any point said that I announced the results of the Anambra South senatorial election under duress.
“No gun or knife was pointed at me at the material time of the election results announcement. The election tribunal remains the constitutionally recognized means for any aggrieved party.”
