TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED ON THURSDAY 16TH APRIL 2015 IN UYO, BY HON. JOHN HARRY ON BEHALF OF THE APC CANDIDATES FOR THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN AKWA IBOM STATE HELD 11 APRIL 2015

?Where are the House of Assembly election results in Akwa Ibom State??? Gentlemen of the Press?Today is Thursday, 16th April 2015 – good five days after the Governorship and House of Assembly elections of April 11 – yet the INEC in Akwa Ibom State has not announced the HSA election results. We know for a fact that these results should have been announced at the Local Government Collation centres in the night of the election or early the following day. We know that INEC has hurriedly manufactured the results for the Governorship Election just to satisfy Gov. Godswill Akpabio. We note that the two elections (the Governorship and House of Assembly) were conducted simultaneously on the same day. So how can one result be released and the other withheld till now. Indeed by INEC Guidelines, the House of Assembly results were to be released at the LGA collation centres while the Governorship results would then be released at the state capital. The question then is why did INEC not release the 26 House of Assembly Results at the Collation Centres, and why have they not been released until now???Gentlemen of the Press, as most of you might have observed in the course of your work on Saturday, April 11, we can say categorically that there were indeed no elections in most polling units in the state. Our Party, the APC, has stated this clearly in a press statement sent to you; which was also published as an advertorial in The Nation newspaper yesterday (Wednesday, 15th April 2015). In fact many independent observes such as the ones from the European Union, the US Embassy, the British High Commission, Civil Societies Organisation, INEC Independent Observation Team and many others have released the reports of their Observation Visits to Akwa Ibom, and the all o them have passed a common verdict: The elections in Akwa Ibom state were irredeemably flawed and should be cancelled. Only yesterday, our National Assembly members, notably Senators Aloysius Etok, Ita Enang and Helen Esuene also spoke with one voice, urging Prof. Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of INEC to do the right thing and cancel the abracadabra conducted by Mr Austin Okojie and his friends in PDP. We totally agree with them.??We understand that since there were no elections in Akwa Ibom State last Saturday, the delay in releasing the House of Assembly results is because the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Austin Okojie is facing serious problems trying to manufacture election results for the state House of Assembly which was conducted simultaneously with the governorship poll on Aril 11. Okojie, in connivance with Governor Godswill Akpabio and the PDP have quickly concocted the governorship results, allocating over 90% of the votes cast to the PDP. But in trying to cook up the numbers for our 26-member House of Assembly, Okojie and his fellow fraudulent Electoral Officers (EOs) are in a mathematical fix as there really was no election and so they cannot share the numbers without contradicting themselves with the already released results for governorship. This is a clear case of working from answer to question,, and it has proved to be a nightmare scenario!??We know that as we speak, INEC officials and their recruited agents are busy thump printing ballot papers to reflect the numbers they plan to allocate to the political parties in the state. But how will the REC, Mr Austine Okojie determine the sharing formula for the ‘manufactured votes’ since no voting took place in most polling units – about 2,000 of them – in the first place. How will Mr. Okojie and his band of mathematical magicians announce these results in the polling units, as the law stipulates; and how will they fabricate and allocate their numbers to the 329 wards and 31 LGAS? There is of course the Card Reader angle to all this. Everything must synchronise with what those devices recorded!?Yesterday, one of our eminent leaders, Chief Don Etiebet, a PDP chieftain, addressed a press conference in Abuja during which he asked the question: ‘Why should INEC participate in a fraud, announce false results and then turn around to expect people to go to court?’ on our part we will like to ask: Hoe did the Original Result Sheets find themselves to the hands of PDP and government officials, instead of being sent to the polling units??We therefore sound a note of warning that we the APC House of Assembly Candidates will NEVER, EVER accept manufactured results from Mr Austin Okojie. We therefore demand as follows:??1. Mr Austin Okojie, the REC in Akwa Ibom State, and all his corrupt staffs who took part in the criminal conduct of last Saturday should be arrested and prosecuted forthwith. They are worse than armed robbers!??2. The sham and charade exercise of last Saturday called elections should be cancelled totally. By this we mean both the Governorship and the State Assembly Elections.??3. A new REC, EOs and other officials should be recruited and fresh House of Assembly and Governorship elections should be conducted within the time frame allowed.??SIGNED?Hon. John Harry?APC Candidate, Nsit Atai State Constituency