Veteran Nollywood actor Emeka Ike has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the FCT of manipulating the party’s House of Representatives primary election for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency.
The actor, who lost in the May 29 primary, led a protest to the INEC office in Abuja alongside his supporters, alleging that the electoral process was deliberately skewed against him and other aspirants.
Videos circulating online showed Emeka Ike visibly upset as he confronted officials at the commission’s premises, insisting that aspirants were excluded from a transparent process.
“You are forced to do the right thing and you are now trying to come and do election behind us. We don’t have an address. We don’t have an address while the election is going on. I’m an Aspirant and I’m a Nigerian. And I’m saying to INEC, you will not go through with this. I don’t do social media activism. INEC will not escape this. You’re hiding to do election because you want to betray Nigerians. We have come for you,” he said.
Speaking further outside the commission’s office, the actor claimed the primaries were plagued by confusion and irregularities, alleging that several contestants were misinformed about the actual voting locations.
According to him, aspirants and their supporters moved between different venues after being given conflicting information, only to discover that voting had already taken place elsewhere.
“There was so much serious chaos in all the wards, and we are not happy that some of us did not get the information of where the elections will be carried out. We mobilised our followers and expected proper accreditation, but instead people without party cards were allowed to vote. Some even came with voters’ cards, and we have videos of money being shared,” he alleged.
Emeka Ike explained that candidates were initially directed to the Women’s Centre before being asked to proceed to a local government council venue in Abuja. However, he claimed no electoral activities were taking place there while voting had already commenced in several wards.
“First of all, a couple of us aspirants were disenfranchised because where we were told the election would hold was not eventually where it held. We were told that we’re supposed to go to, first it was women’s center, then they said we should go to our local government council area in Trinity. And then at the end of the day, nothing was happening around there.
“We are now told, we got information from our intel, that plenty of the wards have been activated while some of us were at the local government center. And then the election was going on in the ward, so we now have to start mobilizing our followers to run to the ward. And some of them, before they got to the ward, election was concluded,” he said.
The actor further alleged that when he and his supporters confronted party officials at the INEC office, those involved attempted to leave the premises.
“We went to the council area they asked us to go for election. We went to the INEC office in Area 10. We didn’t see people voting. Then when we got to the car park, we saw some party officials with a few people in a corner doing the same electoral process, and we confronted them.
“They quickly got into the car and started running off. We blocked the gates with our cars. They saw they couldn’t escape. We didn’t know they can escape from the back of that INEC office,” he alleged.
