* Demand REC’s sack
The 27 Imo State House of Assembly candidates of the Labour Party on Sunday that they have concluded to head to the Tribunal to challenge the state Assembly elections which produced only candidates of the All Progressives Congress(APC) as winners.
At a press conference in Owerri, the state capital, the LP candidate for Orlu State Constituency, Precious Nwadike, who spoke on behalf of the 26 other candidates, said that the LP candidates “clearly won the elections APC working in connivance with agents of the Independent National Electoral Commission compromised the process.”
Flanked by his colleagues, Nwadike called for the immediate sack of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for INEC in the state, Prof Silvia Agu.
Nwadike, said that up till now INEC in the state had continued to frustrate the LP candidates’ efforts to access to the electoral materials even with court orders to that effect.
He said ” We, the Labour Party (LP) candidates in Imo State, representing the 27 local government areas, having fully and objectively x-rayed in details, all the issues and factors that played out before, during and after the 2023 general elections hereby resolve as follows:
”Commend and appreciate Imo people for coming out en masse to vote Labour Party at all levels during the February 25 and March 18 elections. Imolites stood gallantly by us, despite all the intimidation and harassment meted out on them by the APC led government of Imo state.
“We assure that we won’t take this good gesture for granted, and would reciprocate in good measure through quality service delivery and promotion of good governance as proclaimed and represented by our principal, Mr Peter Obi.
“At present, efforts are being made to ensure that the mandates which you freely gave to us are restored through every lawful means, not excluding organising protests to register our displeasure over the broad daylight rape of democracy in Imo State.
“We most sincerely regret that there was massive rigging and harassment of voters across the 27 LGA on February 25 and March 18, 2023. It was a clear case of organized robbery, imposition and impunity, not election.
“This sham of an election, in Imo State was made possible by the action as well as inaction of the Imo State REC, Prof Sylvia Agu, who against her oath of office to be fair and neutral in the discharge of her duties, allowed herself to be used by agents of the Imo State Government for the purposes of favouring and aiding the All Progressives Congress (APC) in manipulating the outcome of the elections.
”The fact that elections were never held in many wards and Local Government Areas in Imo state, particularly in places where insecurity reigned was evidential. However, with the permission and supervision of Imo State REC, the APC, using the obnoxious Ebubeagu Security Network, via the broom party’s agents wrote and manufactured forged results that laughably gave APC a highly questionable victory.
”Evidence before us, brought by our agents and field workers, confirmed by journalists as well as foreign observers who covered the 2023 elections, indicate that the reprehensible mannerisms of the Imo State REC has universally earned the last polls as the worst in the history of the state.
”Even after the elections, the Imo REC was so biased and unrepentant that she never allowed our agents, based on the stipulations of the law, to collate results from the polling units via the wards to the LGAs in order to prove our case beyond every reasonable doubts that we were rigged out. Rather, our agents were harassed,intimidated and were not allowed access to the collation centers.
”In view of the monstrous activities and complicity of the Imo State REC, we are calling for her immediate sack, investigation and prosecution because she showed glaring signs of corruption, incompetence and total disregard to the ordinances of the electoral guidelines and electoral act.
”It is no longer news that the Imo REC for the period of the two elections was seen holding meetings with agents of APC, from where she took instructions to carry out all her hatchet jobs against Imo people and only visited her office at Port Harcourt Road with heavy security personal provided her by the APC government in Imo State of which principal has become the latest Lord of the Manor.
“Suffice it to say that she sold her conscience to the Devil by endorsing the charade called elections in Imo which was marred by massive rigging and falsification of results from polling units while accepting results written by APC agents without BVAS accreditation for which the new Electoral Act says is a nullity abinitio. All this she did with utmost disregard to her status as a Professor.
“Finally, is regrettable that till date,the INEC led by Agu in Imo State is doing everything to frustrate issuance of certified True copies of results to all the 27 Labour Party candidates in Imo to enable us to complete our filing in court.
“We therefore use this opportunity to alert the general Public of the activities of Imo REC targetted at shortchanging our candidates. She must be called to order before it is too late as no one enjoys to be held down in perpetuity without a revolt”
