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The State Assembly candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo State in the 18th of March polls in the state have lashed out at the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Sylvia Agu, for supervising the massive rigging of the State House of Assembly election in the State.
The candidates, who addressed a press conference in Owerri on Sunday decried the activities of the REC and other staff of INEC for working closely with the State government to rob the Imo people of their legitimate votes for their preferred candidates.
In a communique read by the LP candidate of Orlu State Constituency, Mr. Precious Nwadike, on behalf of other 26 candidates of the party, however, called for the sack, investigation, and prosecution of the REC for allegedly manipulating the entire process of an election.
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He also regretted that the said REC, after a court order to allow the candidates access to the certified true copies (CTC) of the results and other electoral documents, has continued to deny them the documents even when it remains a few days to the expiration of the deadline.
‘We, therefore, use this opportunity to alert the general public of the activities of Imo REC targeted at shortchanging our candidates. She must be called to order before it is too late as no one enjoys being held down in perpetuity without a revolt.
‘It is no longer news that the Imo REC for the period of the two elections was seen holding meetings with agents of APC, from where she took instructions to carry out all her hatchet jobs against Imo people and only visited her office with heavy security presence provided for her by the APC-led government of the state.
‘It is a shame that the REC compromised her office against being fair and neutral in the discharge of her duties by allowing herself to be used by the ruling APC agents, using the disbanded Ebubeagu security outfit to manufacture results.
‘The fact remained that elections were never held in many wards and local governments in the State and the area’s election held, it was the LP candidates that won in those areas, according to the uploaded BVAS,’ he stated.
The candidates made a strong case for the outright cancellation of the Imo State House of Assembly election or make use of the BVAS results uploaded from the polling units.
