Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have called for an outright cancellation of the Imo State governorship election held on Saturday, November 12.
The Deputy Governorship candidate of the LP, Tony Nwulu, in a press conference on Saturday night, said that the security agents allegedly provided security to the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the members of the All Progressives Congress to subvert the will of the people of the state.
Nwulu said: “As I speak to you all the electoral materials had been diverted to all the local government Areas secretariats in the state where rewriting of the election results was allegedly ongoing.”
He said that the APC members engaged in vote buying, intimidation of voters, snatching of electoral materials, and the diversion of the poll materials to the homes of individuals and the LGA council headquarters for manipulations.
He said that the LP won in the actual votes cast in the election, saying that “democracy is under threat in this state.”
Nwulu said: “There was no election in Imo state on Saturday. What happened was the diversion of the electoral materials to the homes of the people and the LGA council headquarters. In all this, the police, army, and DSS provided security to the actors.
“They came with huge sums of money to the polling units for votes buying but the Imo people rejected them. They now resorted to snatching of electoral materials, and diversion of the electoral materials to the homes of individuals and to the LGA headquarters where they are currently rewriting the results.
“In all these things, the police, army, and DSS are providing security to the APC members and staff of INEC in these disgraceful acts. We have all the records. We are putting Nigerians on notice that there was no election in Imo state on Saturday.
“The position of our party and my principal, Athan Achonu, who is the governorship candidate of the party in Imo state is that this sham called election to be cancelled, out rightly.”
Addressing journalists in a separate press conference, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Samuel Anyanwu, also called for the cancellation of the election.
He said that INEC and the security agents failed in their constitutional responsibility to deliver credible elections to the people of the state.
He said that instead, the security agents protected INEC staff as the APC members rewrote results.
Anyanwu said that he and his party, the PDP, would not accept anything other than a total cancellation of the poll.
