•Threatens To Reject March 11 Election If…
By Onyekachi Eze
Following the collation and ongoing announcement of results of the last Saturday, February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Imo State Chapter of the Labour Party has pounced on the Resident Electoral Commissioner REC, Prof. Sylvia Agu, and all the Electoral Officers over alleged malpractice.
Recall that Nigerians filed out last Saturday to elect who would succeed Buhari and future members of the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.
The process continued till Sunday in some places with case of irregularities and cancellations.
However, the Party in Imo State joined with Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Organization, during a press conference in Owerri, yesterday frowned at the irregularities that marred most of the polling units in Imo State.
This led to their calling for the immediate removal of the REC, Prof. Sylvia Agu, the Electoral Officers EOs, and the SPOs in Imo State.
The Labour Party Chairman, Dr. Ambrose Onyekwere explained that in contrary to INEC’s promise of conducting a free and fair polls, the REC and her subordinates still allegedly fueled election malpractice in majority of the polling units across the State.
Onyekwere stated that from the outcome of the exercise, Labour Party won in all the polling units from the Presidency down to the 3 Senatorial seats to the House of Representatives.
He added that Imolites were eager to make a change and this voted massively for Labour Party.
The press statement which read in parts say;
“From the outcome of the election, Labour Party won in all the polling units from the presidency down to the House of Representative (3/3). The failure of INEC to upload and transmit all the results collated calls for concern and have shown clearly the failure and insincerity of both the electoral body and the interference by the APC government of Imo State.
“However, it is very clear that with efforts of the State Working Committee of the Party and the Obidalti Presidential Campaign Council in the state, Imolites responded to the call to bring a new change in Nigeria by voting in the most qualified candidate Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party as the President and consequently Owerri Zone took the lead by wining all the positions from the presidency to the House of Representatives.
“In Owerri Municipal, Labour Party won landslide in all the polling unites but reports from reliable sources had it that with the intrusion of agents of the APC government in Imo State, that came with large number of security personnel drove all the party agents out of the collation centre and tried change the Labour Party results to favour APC.
“Same attack by the agents of government was also witnessed in both Mbaitoli and Njaba L.G.A w ere the state government paid agents with their security personnel and hired tugs chased out all other Party agents, locked the gates leaving only the APC party agents in a bid to change most of the results with the help of the INEC officials. But despite all their efforts, Labour Party won in these areas with a wide margin.
“Furthermore, in Okigwe L.G.A of Imo North Senatorial zone of the state with 11 electoral wards, election did not hold in 7 wards of the L.G.A out of 11 wards due to insecurity and absence of INEC officials but rumor has it that the Senatorial Candidate of the ruling party in the state is about to be declared winner of the Senatorial election which will not be accepted by the entire people of Okigwe zone if that happens.
“In Orlu Zone, Oru East in particular, where election held only in four polling units in Omuma ward which is the State Governors Ward, and also in Orlu Local Government Area, out of the 209 polling units election was held in only 14 polling units but to the surprise of all, results signed by no party agent were manufactured and uploaded the INEC portal.
“We wish to put on record the widespread and mind-bugging ineptitude of INEC in the conduct of last Saturday’s election in Imo state. Our areas of complain include, but not limited to the following;
a. Late arrival of voting materials at polling units: materials arrived polling units several hours after they ought to have been in place, with the very first arrival at 10:15 am while several units received their own materials after 3pm.
b. Non conduct of election at many polling units: election materials did not arrive at all the pooling units, meaning that there were no votes cast at such units. We are in the process of compiling the affected units/ areas.
c. Absence of INEC staffs at polling station: in many places, INEC staffs didn’t show up at all until disappointed voters went home after waiting patiently till 6pm.
d. Deliberate subversion of the electoral process by INEC staffs:
i. In many of the units where voting took place, the INEC staffs bluntly refused to transmit result with excuses ranging from “NO CODE” to “BVAS machine has no sim. There are stands up still going on now (9pm) between INEC staffs and angry voters demanding that their results be transmitted/uploaded into the server.
ii. INEC staffs arrived at polling units with insufficient materials including not more than 25 ballot papers for each of the three positions being contested for. Furthermore, a significant number arrived without result sheers and that compelled the electorate to cast their votes, nonetheless, meaning that such votes are wasted.
iii. Manipulation and tampering of BVAS machines: Such machines will begin transmissions of results and then hang midway, with all attempts after several hours to resume transmission proving fruitless.
e. Non -compliance with INEC directives to conduct elections on Sunday 26/2/22 in polling units where elections did not take place in previous day. Voters once again trooped out in large numbers on Sunday 26/2/23 and it was a repeat of Saturday 25/2/23. INEC official didn’t show up, with disgruntled voters going home by 6pm after waiting all day.
f. Intimidation and sabotage by agent of the government of Imo state.
At several locations such as Owerri Municipal and Mbaitolu, agents of Imo state government harassed innocent State citizens and party polling agents and carted away election materials.
Imo therefore states as follows;
g. Where INEC staff attempted offline transmission to please voters when actually all was a mirage.
1. We interpret the actions of INEC as a deliberate and systematic disenfranchisement of the citizens of Imo state
2. We call for the immediate removal of the REC, all EO’s and SPO’s in Imo state
3. We reject in advance any and all results for the house of assembly elections scheduled for 11/3 23 if conducted by the current REC Prof Sylvia Agu and her team.
4. INEC Imo and agents of Imo state government shall be held liable for incitement to insurrection if her actions results in post-election violence in Imo state.
5. We therefore call for the immediate removal of Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner Prof Sylvia Agu.
Adding his voice, the Labour Party Candidate for Oru East/Orlu/Orsu Reps seat, Hon. Geff Ojinika insisted that there was no election held in Oru East on the said date, except in Omuma booth 008, 010, and 012. He voiced out that any other results being circulated or presented are all fake.
The Imo North Senatorial Candidate, Ifeanyi Araraume Jnr. prayed that he be declared winner as well as the Reps Candidates for Okigwe North and South having polled the highest number of votes.
“In contrary to RECs promise before the election, over 5places didn’t hold election in Okigwe, but figures as much as 40,000 votes were allocated to APC”.
