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Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma on Sunday secured a controversial second term in a historic style as he swept all the 27 local government areas and polled 540,308 votes to defeat 17 other candidates.
The Eastern Updates reports that the first runner-up, Senator Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 71,503 votes, while Labour Party’s Athan Achonu, polled 64,081 votes.
Anthony Ejiogu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and Jack Ogunewe of the Action Alliance (AA), followed with 6,392 and 5,756 votes, respectively.
While the camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the supporters of the incumbent governor, savor their unassailable victory, the opposition parties have rejected the outcome of the polls.
Declaring the result, the state Returning Officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, said Uzodinma polled 540,308 votes to defeat 17 other candidates.
Fasina, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, said the PDP governorship candidate, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, polled 71,503 votes.
Reacting to the victory, the APC’s state Collation Officer and Attorney-General of the state, Mr Cyprian Akaolisa, commended the INEC and the security agencies for the peaceful conduct of the polls.
“It is clear that INEC did their best to ensure a free and fair election; from the distribution of election materials to the conduct of the election, was peaceful.
Read Also: Imo: ‘Election Victory Has Vindicated Me’ – Uzodinma Reacts
“Security agencies did their utmost best to ensure that the process was smooth. We had a credible, free and fair election. This victory is for the Imo people. It is a victory for the continuation of the development the governor is providing for the people,” Akaolisa said.
Meanwhile, the LP and the PDP have called for cancelation of the election.
The deputy governorship candidate of the LP, Tony Nwulu, at a press conference, claimed security agents provided security for staff of INEC and members of the APC to subvert the will of the people of the state.
He alleged that the APC members engaged in vote buying, intimidation of voters, snatching of electoral materials, and diversion of electoral materials to homes of individuals and local government council headquarters for manipulations.
He claimed the LP won in the actual votes cast in the election, warning that democracy was under threat in the state. ‘There was no election in Imo State. What happened was the diversion of the electoral materials to the homes of people and the local government council headquarters. In all this, the police, the army, and the Department of State Service (DSS) provided security to the actors.’
Also while addressing journalists at a separate press conference, Anyanwu also called for the cancellation of the election.
He said INEC and the security agents failed in their constitutional responsibility to deliver credible election to the people of the state, lamenting that instead, the security agents protected the INEC staff as the APC members rewrote results.
Anyanwu insisted that he, alongside his party, the PDP, would not accept anything other than a total cancelation of the poll.
