The Imo Governorship candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu and of the Governorship candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Senator Athan Achonu, on Monday, gave the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, seven days to cancel the last Saturday’s Imo governorship election.
The duo of Senator Achonu and Anyanwu, gave this ultimatum in Owerri while speaking jointly on the outcome of last Saturday’s governorship election in the state, where INEC, gave the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, victory.
Their reason was because of the alleged massive rigging as well as the diversion of electoral materials to private homes and thumbprinted.
For the governorship candidate of the LP, Senator Achonu said: “Where there was accreditation, results were already uploaded before 10 am, that is even when voting was ongoing. From the information available to us even the Electoral officers were sharing the money with other INEC officials and at the same time gave them already written results to upload.
“We have written to the INEC Chairman calling for a total review of the election or outright cancellation of the election. That was why the chairman of LP, called on the INEC to check their IREV for authentic results. They did not listen to him because they had planned it.”
The governorship candidate of the PDP, Senator Anyanwu, said: “I feel so ashamed about what the INEC has done. INEC promised a free, fair and credible election. But empty vehicles were moved to Owerri for voters from Orsu LGA. They used armoured vehicles, and security operatives to carry out these irregularities. How come Orsu gave about 18,000 votes? This election is a charade. There must be a review of these results. How come a police officer was caught on video carrying ballot boxes?
“It was not an election. it was a war. Over 70 percent there was no collation of results. This a PDP state, where the governorship election took two days to conduct. The INEC has seven days to review these elections or cancel outrightly.”
Meanwhile, the APC in Imo has called on other political parties to close ranks, accept the outcome of the election, and support Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to develop the state in the next four years.
The state chairman of the APC, Macdonald Ebere, described the election as free, fair and credible.
A coalition of INEC observers who monitored the election across the 27 local government areas of the state commended INEC and security operatives for a job well done.
The Imo State governorship election was one of the three off-cycle elections conducted by INEC on Saturday, with 17 political parties contesting for the number one seat in the state.
At the end of the exercise, Uzodimma was declared the winner with 540,308 votes.
Vanguard/Pacesetter