ENUGU State governor-elect, Dr Peter Mbah has vowed to put in his best to ensure that the state achieves greatness in development.

Mbah made the pledge on Thursday in an acceptance speech he gave at a press conference. He said he would be in a hurry to develop Enugu state.

“I accept this announcement with a glad, solemn and grateful heart and with only one obligation: to devote every tissue of my flesh, the totality of my mind and spirit to the task of the greatness of Enugu State,” Mbah promised

Meanwhile, the governorship of the Labour Party in the election, Chijioke Edeoga has rejected the result announced by INEC with which Mbah was declared the winner, saying the result was not in consonance with the wishes of the people of the Enugu state.

Edeoga who expressed dissatisfaction with the manner the controversial Nkanu East Council was resolved by INEC alleged that two senior INEC officers from the South East were used to do the “Nkanu East magic”. He wondered why his complaint on the wrong computation of results of Enugu East, where over 3000 votes of the Labour party were not added, was not attended to.

“We will explore all legal processes. The result by INEC was not in consonance with the wishes of the people of Enugu State. There were many cases of voting, and bypassing of BVAS. We are assembling for legal action. Labour party has decided to reject it, the outcome of the election is not accepted by us”, Edeoga said, but for by party members and supporters.

Mbah, in his acceptance speech further said: “This victory could not have been won except for God, with the active support of you, the people of Enugu State. While extending my gratitude to you, permit me to appreciate the current governor of our state and members of his cabinet; statesmen; our party leaders; security operatives; religious leaders; civil society groups, the media, and everyone who made this a reality.”

He pledged that his government would be an all-encompassing one that would not be sectional.

“Let me restate that ours will not be a government of any section of Enugu State. It is your government, Ndi Enugu. Under our administration, there can never be a division between Nsukka and Nkanu or any other section of the state. We are all brothers and sisters.

“Those who attempted to create a wedge between us failed woefully. We were massively voted for by every section of the state. Those who wanted to smack our heads together had an ulterior motive and it was to create perpetual fussing and fighting between us. We resisted their machination and today, we are coming together stronger. Our resolve thereafter is to pursue the spirit of divisiveness from our state.”

Also, the Enugu state Labour party joined its candidate to reject the outcome of the election. The party described the declaration of Peter Mbah as a ” sham and cannot stand”

“Enugu State Chapter of Labour Party hereby rejects in its entirety the result of the governorship election that took place on the 18th of March,2023 as it was marred by widespread and wholesale rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring, mutilation and manipulation of the results, particularly the result of Nkanu East.

“It’s on record that the process of accreditation and use of BVAS was not followed in some of the pooling booths, especially Nkanu East.

“It’s also on record that in the course of the collation of results, the results of Nkanu East showed monumental disparities between the number of registered voters and the total number of votes, but the obviously compromised INEC decided to disregard the provisions of the Electoral Act and went ahead to declare the conspicuously padded results despite complaints from the opposition parties.

“This was the reason why they deliberately delayed the announcement of the result to pave way for further manipulations.

“The position of the party, therefore, is that the result as declared by Inec on the 22nd of March, 2023, four days after the elections were concluded, was heavily doctored and does not reflect the wishes of ndi Enugu State.

“In view of the foregoing developments, we are, by this media release, registering our dissatisfaction over the electoral irregularities and malfeasances activated and actuated by heavy financial inducements.

“Let it be known that our great party is poised to deepen the root of democracy in Nigeria and can not fold our arms and allow this level of the electoral heist to go unchallenged.

“In due course, the position of the party will be made known as we have started assembling our facts together to do the needful.

“Surely, this is a rape of democracy”, patty said in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Barr. Onuora Odo.

VANGUARD