The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has moved the collation centre for the Imo North (Okigwe Zone) Senatorial election which comes up on Saturday, December 5, 2020 to its Headquarter in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
What this means is that the final result would be announced in Owerri, and not at the Senatorial Zone as was the case in the previous two attempts to elect a Senator for Okigwe Zone.
Speaking to Newsmen, the INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voters Education, Festus Okoye said that INEC cannot afford to fail in making sure that this latest election in the Okigwe zone election comes out successful, with a winner emerging.
He said that the decision to move the collation centre to Owerri “was to forestall deliberate disruption of collation of election results in the Senatorial district”.
Okoye said that INEC has put up more measures in making sure that the Saturday election ends with a winner emerging without further disruption of the results like before.
“The Commission has had very difficult experiences managing elections in the Imo North Senatorial District over years, particularly regarding attempts to disrupt collation of results” the INEC Information Officer said.
He maintained that “to forestall deliberate disruption of collation of results, the collation of Local Government Levels results will not take place in the constituency”.
He said that all materials for the elections have arrived Imo State, as the most sensitive ones are in the Central Bank only for distribution on the election day.
Already, all the parties in the Okigwe election have intensified campaigns for the polls which comes up on Saturday.
The major political parties jostling for the now contentious and elusive Okigwe Senate seat include the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which parades Chief Emma Okewulonu, APC with Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, Accord, Hon Patrick Ndubueze APGA has Attorney, Charles Onyirimba and Others.
Unfortunately, the APC is in confusion, as the party is in crisis over the real candidate of the party, as both Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and Chief Frank Ibezim are campaigning simultaneously for the APC slot.
It would be recalled that for over two years now, Okigwe Zone has no Senator as each attempt to produce another Senator after Benji Uwajumogu through a bye-election had ended in chaos, mayhem and inconclusive, which led INEC to now take the collation centre of the election to its Headquarter at the Imo State capital, Owerri.
