The Action Congress
of Nigeria in Imo State has asked the Independent Electoral Commission
(INEC) to cancel last Saturday’s election into the National Assembly.
According to the leadership of the party, the election was fraught with massive irregularity and thus cannot stand.
The state chairman
of the party, Charles Ubah said for elections in the state to be
credible, the chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega, must as a matter of
urgency redeploy all the principal officers of the commission in the
state.
“We are making this
complain to INEC so that we can participate in the next elections,”
said Mr. Ubah. “We are suspecting that there is calculated ploy by INEC
to make the incumbent win,” he added.
Mr. Alex Obi, a
leader of the party further urged the electoral body to disqualify all
contestants involved in violence and rigging. Mr. Obi alleged that
agents working for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were
involved in large scale rigging including carting away of ballot papers
and boxes. This, he said they achieved with the help of fake policemen.
The party also said
it was appalled when electoral officials received ballot boxes which
were snatched by agents of the PDP with ballot papers stuffed into
them.
The party alleged
that this was most prominent in Uguta, Egbema ward A, B, and C; Mbutu
in Aboh Mbaise local government; Ideato North and Ideato South local
governments.
Mr. Obi said he was
disappointed that INEC disregarded their complaint on the use of
lecturers from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) as
collating and returning officers.
Prior to the
election, the ACN alongside other opposition political parties had
petitioned Mr. Jega expressing concern over the recruitment of
lecturers from FUTO as collating officers stating that the running mate
to the incumbent governor, Voila Onwuliri, was, until her joining the
race, a professor at the institution.
Unreasonable call
The spokesperson of
the PDP in the state, Blyden Amajirionwu, in a telephone conversation
with our reporter said the call by the ACN is unfounded as the
elections in the state were properly conducted.
“The election was properly conducted and we won”, said Mr. Amajirionwu.
“Imo people have
spoken and they spoke in favour of PDP. This is not the first time
they’ve been doing that since 1999. Rather than asking INEC to cancel
the election we commend INEC for doing a wonderful job,” he added.
Mr. Amajirionwu
also called on aggrieved opposition members to go to the tribunal to
prove their cases if they have any evidence of ballot box snatching. He
also denied that the state INEC officials were bias in favour of the
PDP.
According to him,
the fact that the state resident electoral commissioner has not been
redeployed as requested by the opposition is an indication that the
leadership of INEC were impressed with the job she is doing in INEC.
Underachievers
Generally,
opposition parties in the state fell short of their pre-election
ratings. The performance of the ACN, whose majority of member are made
up of former PDP members, has come as a complete surprise to many
indigenes of the state. Out of the three senatorial seats in the state,
the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won one seat while the
others were cleared by the PDP. Chris Ayanwu of APGA defeated former
Minister of Aviation Kema Chikwe in the election to the senatorial seat
of the Owerri Senatorial District.
In Imo West
Senatorial District, also popularly referred to as the Orlu Zone, Osita
Izunaso floored the former governor of the State Achike Udenwa to
secure the senatorial seat. The PDP also emerged victorious in Imo East
Senatorial District.
Similarly, in the election into the House of Representatives, the
PDP has won three out of the four results released so far, with the
APGA clinching just one.
