The youths of Isu Local Government Area Monday stormed the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Owerri the Imo State capital to demand for the immediate declaration of the results from the supplementary election held last Saturday for the conclusion of Isu state constituency election which was declared inconclusive during the last state assembly elections in the state.
The youths, accompanied by some of the leaders of the LGA specifically accused the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Sylvia Agu of compromised as she was said to be the one who gave the orders which suspended the collation and announcement of results for the rerun election.
The leader of the protest, Hon. Fidelis Ibewuike while addressing the commission and the press raised posers for the REC;
“Our election was declared inconclusive because the number of votes from polling units where election did not hold was higher than the number of lead of the leading party the PDP:
Here are the facts:
APC = 4,907 votes
PDP = 5,390 votes.
These were the figures as at the time election was declared inconclusive.” he stated.
Raising the posers he queried the REC as follows:
“Why was the APC and the PDP allocated with the same number of votes as at before the supplementary election as the new declared results after supplementary election?
“The returning officer while announcing the PDP’s candidate as the winner said that the party scored 5,390 votes being the same figures scored during the last election —what were the scores of the party for the supplementary election?
“If the PDP could be declared winner with results from the last election without any recourse to the new supplementary election figures, why then was the rational for the supplementary election to hold?” he contented.
After raising the posers, they made their demands as follows:
“INEC must review the fraudulent declaration of the results which returned the PDP’s candidate with a view of annulling it the figures used in the declaration was not the figures from the supplementary election held Saturday, April 15th, 2023.
“Imo REC must instruct for the final collation of the results from the supplementary election and announcing winner from it without any further delay.
“From the figures gotten from our situation room in the collation exercise from our field agents, our candidate, Barr. Kingsley Ozurumba of the APC polled the highest number of lawful votes and must be declared the winner of the exercise.” they demanded.
Responding to their petition, the Imo INEC’s Director for voter education/publicity Mrs. Emmanuela Ben Opara received the protest letter while promising to make sure that it gets to the REC and also assured that the issues raised in the letter will be addressed by the commission.
