You Have Seven Days To Cancel Imo Election, Anyanwu, Achonu Tell INEC

Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Senator Athan Achonu have demanded the cancellation of last Saturday’s Imo governorship election, issuing a seven-day ultimatum to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Owerri, the two governorship candidates expressed their discontent with the election’s outcome, where INEC declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) victorious.

Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Achonu of the Labour Party (LP) based their demand on alleged widespread rigging and the diversion of electoral materials to private residences, including incidents of thumbprinting.

They urged INEC to take swift action within the specified timeframe to address these concerns.

Senator Achonu said: “Where there was accreditation, results were already uploaded before 10 am, that is even when voting was ongoing. From the information available to us, even the Electoral officers were sharing the money with other INEC officials and, at the same time, gave them already written results to upload.

“We have written to the INEC Chairman calling for a total review of the election or outright cancellation of the election. That was why the LP chairman called on the INEC to check their IREV for authentic results. They did not listen to him because they had planned it.”

Also speaking, Senator Anyanwu said: “I feel so ashamed about what the INEC has done. INEC promised a free, fair and credible election. But empty vehicles were moved to Owerri for voters from Orsu LGA.

“They used armoured vehicles and security operatives to carry out these irregularities. How come Orsu gave about 18,000 votes? This election is a charade. There must be a review of these results. How come a police officer was caught on video carrying ballot boxes?

“It was not an election. It was a war. Over 70 per cent, there was no collation of results. This a PDP state, where the governorship election took two days to conduct. The INEC has seven days to review these elections or cancel outrightly.”