Spokesman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh has denied saying that the gubernatorial elections which held last week in Anambra were free and fair.
The chieftain who is also an indigene of Anambra State was quoted last Sunday as having said, “The Peoples Democratic Party hereby commends President Goodluck Jonathan for providing adequate security and the enabling environment for the conduct of credible, free and fair governorship election in Anambra State last Saturday in spite of any perceived hitch (es).
“In the same vein, we commend the entire people of Anambra State and all stakeholders who played key roles in ensuring peaceful and orderly conduct of the process.”
He added that the party, “expressed its satisfaction that the election was conducted without disturbances, despite the massive importation of political thugs by the All progressives Congress as well as their heinous plots to introduce violence to disrupt and rig the poll.’’
However after being slammed by the State chapter of the PDP and the campaign office of Tony Nwoye, the PDP’s candidate, Mr. Metuh had an about face and denied the remarks.
Whilst being quizzed by reporters on Thursday, he said, “We commended the President and the electoral officers for providing the enabling environment for this election.
“Mind you, what we said was that we commended them for providing an enabling environment. We never said whether it was peaceful or credible or free and fair.
“It’s a question of semantics, we were more concerned with the fact that APC wanted to rig the election and that they wanted to cause a lot of violence and mayhem in Anambra but the security forces were capable of handling the situation and they stopped them.
“It has nothing to do with the conduct of the election but the creation of the enabling environment for a peaceful, credible, free and fair poll.”