Anthony Onuoha, a suspect arrested by the Ebonyi State police command on Thursday for alleged car theft, confessed to working with over 30 election riggers during last year’s Anambra election in favour of Prof. Charles Soludo.
When Onuoha and other suspects were paraded, he claimed that one Uche General had hired them to rig the governorship election in favour of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, or APGA.
The suspect claimed that after the election, they were given a car and 50,000 naira.
According to him: “Last year November, a car was given to me after governor Soludo’s election, because I was involved as one of the 30 persons that were kept in one place to work for APGA. We were promised to be given a car and fifty thousand naira after the election.
“What attracted me to work for APGA was the car and not the fifty thousand naira. I went to Anambra State that November; I was picked by one Mr. Uche General, I don’t know his surname. Uche General was the one in charge of the section.”
“The role I played there was that we were kept at Awka North to thumbprint ballot papers on that day of the election. We thumb-printed for APGA governorship candidate, Charles Soludo, and we agreed that at the end of the day, we will be given a car and fifty thousand naira, which they did.
“We are nine persons that were given a car out of over thirty persons that were hired for the job. This car was given to me by them and the fifty thousand naira to fuel it,” he alleged.
However, in a swift reaction, the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, who spoke to newsmen through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, said the suspect, Onuoha, should be made to face the wrath of the law.
Soludo denied having any deal with the suspect during the last Anambra State election.
According to him: “The police should take full wrath of the law against the suspect. We don’t know him, he is just telling lies to get off the hook. He is a common criminal and nobody knows him. Moreover, it was BVAS that was used during that last year election in Anambra State. So, where did they do the thumbprinting?
“We don’t know him. We don’t know who he is. He must be a criminal and that is why he is in the police net. APGA won an election that was declared the most free and fair election in Nigeria.”
“There was no such thumbprinting in that Anambra election. It was BVAS that INEC deployed in that election. We don’t know that guy, the governor of Anambra State does not know him. And APGA as a political party does not know him. The guy is on his own and he should face and carry his cross,” he stressed.