“Inconclusive result”, is not a new phrase in Imo political phraseology having first reared it’s head in 2011, when the incumbent governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, wrestled the governorship seat away from Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Not minding that Ohakim had some comfortable lead, Okorocha eventually was returned as governor after that round of supplementary election.
History is now repeating itself as Okorocha now flying the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC is pitched in battle against the challenge of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, Chief Emeka Ihedioha.
INEC GIVES REASONS
The supplementary election according to the State Returning Officer, SRO, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, stemmed from the cancellation of 144,715 votes in various polling booths in about 23 local government areas.
Professor Ibidapo-Obe also cited various complaints of irregularities that emanated from several polling booths across the 305 wards of the state as part of the reasons for declaring the election inconclusive.
According to the SRO, it was only in four out of the 27 local council areas of the state, where there would be no elections again.
The four are Owerri Municipal, Ideato South, Ideato North and Ahiazu Mbaise. After announcing results submitted to him, the SRO, however, said: “I shall not do any declaration. We have various cancellations in various units and wards. The affected polling units in the local governments totaled 144,715. The margin of lead that we calculated from the two leading parties is 79,529, and because of this figure, this election is inconclusive”.
The APC candidate, Okorocha was in the lead with Ihedioha trailing him with the 79,529 votes.
ALL PARTIES RIGGED
The elections according to multiple sources were rigged by all the major parties in the election.
There was an allegation that one of the contenders surreptitiously got the list of the INEC ad-hoc staff, invited them to a particular spot and gave those who responded to the candidate’s invitation, varying sums of money.
Another intriguing malpractice was that the total votes cast in some polling units remained the same, but the name of the winner changed dramatically. It took the eagle-eyed party agent of the “losing” candidate to spot the anomaly who eventually caused a reversal.
There were also reported cases of ballot box snatching, intimidation, violence, failed card reader machines, exchange of varying sums of cash and food at the polling units – electoral offences, whose perpetrators were neither arrested nor sanctioned by the security agents drafted to the areas.
APGA DENOUNCE RESULTS
In its reaction, the leadership of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, not only rejected the results already released by INEC but also demanded a fresh election.
According to the State APGA Chairman, Barrister Peter Ezeobi, the elections were characterized by ballot box snatching, intimidation and other electoral crimes.
“This election is the worst that has been held in the country. It was marred by arrest of our party agents,” Ezeobi said.
OKOROCHA WILL FIGHT
The incumbency factor may again stand in favour of Okorocha. He is most likely going to use his appointees and supporters to do one of two things. He will either get them to work on the electorate or carefully cause serious confusion that would make INEC cancel votes from such disturbed areas. Where this happens, he will still coast home with his over 70,000 votes in his favour and INEC will have no other option than to declare him the winner.
Already, Okorocha and the APC leadership are accusing the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Dr. Gabriel Adah, of not only being a card carrying member of the PDP, sent to do Ihedioha’s hatchet job in Imo, but have consistently called on the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega to remove him.
Whichever way the contest is looked at, and not minding that it may be a herculean task for the PDP to erase the huge poll deficit, it will definitely be battle royale between Okorocha, Ihedioha and their respective parties. The truth, however, is that this is going to be last segment of the contest for the plum seat, and somebody must emerge at the end of the day.
Credit: www.vanguardngr.com/
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