Major stakeholders in Imo State, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Chidi Ibe, have called for the immediate redeployment of the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), George Ada, for allegedly conniving with security agents to compromise the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Ibe who recounted how he was manhandled by soldiers at the alleged instance of the Minister of State for Education, Professor Viola Onwuliri, accused the REC of compromising the process by handing over sensitive electoral materials to PDP candidates.
According to the Commissioner, the purported results released by the Commission do not represent the figures obtained by the various party agents in the state.
“We urgently demand the redeployment of the state REC and the overhaul of the entire INEC officials and adhoc staff in the state before the governorship election to forestall a repeat of the sham that happened during Presidential and National Assembly election.
“We saw how security agents and INEC staff assisted the PDP to compromise the process and we will resist any attempt to rig the governorship election by any person or group of persons”.
Also rejecting the results of the National Assembly elections in the state, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and the APC Senatorial candidate for Imo North (Okigwe senatorial zone), Hon.Benjamin Uwajumogu, described the election as a “complete sham”.
The Speaker held that elections did not hold in the majority of the Local Government Areas, including Ehime Mbano, Isiala Mbano, and Okigwe Council Areas but results were released in the Council Areas by INEC in favour of the PDP
Calling for the cancelation of the entire election, Uwajumogu alleged that “at Ehime Mbano LGA for instance, ballot papers and other election materials meant for Imo West (Owerri senatorial zone) were brought to Okigwe zone. On noticing the situation INEC quickly withdrew the ballot papers and this delayed the exercise.
“At about 7 pm the Electoral Officer announced that it was already late and the election was shifted to the following day and we all agreed to hold the election the following morning but the moment we left the Electoral Officer and the PDP candidate wrote the results of the election and took it to INEC and it was announced as the result from the zone”.
According to him, “the results that emanated in the purported Senatorial election in Imo North especially in the polling units of Ehime Mbano, Isiala Mbano, Onuimo, Okigwe and Ihitte/Uboma did not reflect the actual results with the party agents.
“I reject the entire results being circulated to have emanated from the said March 28th 2015 Senatorial election in the affected LGAs in Imo North. And we will not accept the result until a fresh election is conducted”.
In a similar vein, the APGA state Chairman, Barrister Peter Ezeobi, also called for the cancellation of the National Assembly elections alleging that the result announced did not correspond with the votes casted.
Addressing journalists, Ezeobi pointed out that election never took place in some wards in Orlu Local zone such as Isu, Oguta, Ohaji/Egbema, agwa, Asa Obirie and Obiti where he alleged that ballot boxes were snatched by some PDP thugs.
Ezeobi while calling for a fresh election to be conducted in the three senatorial zones in the state urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve on the performance of the card readers and check the high incidence of thuggery, violence and ballot snatching that marred the National Assembly elections.
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