Ihedioha Kicks as INEC Names Okorocha Imo Gov

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Imo State, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, has dismissed the gubernatorial results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a sham and unacceptable to the party.

Ihedioha, who is the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, in a message he read to the people of the state yesterday, said that in spite of identified electoral malpractices, including the arrest of over 25 INEC staff that conspired with the opposition to manipulate and change results of the elections declared in favour of the PDP, the electoral body went ahead to declare APC candidate the winner of the election.

“In spite also of public confession of an INEC returning officer who was forced under gunpoint to declare false result in favour of the

APC in the gubernatorial election and several arrests of fully-armed men impersonation police officers and recorded inducement of INEC staff at Government House,Owerri  on the eve of the election as captured in photographs, audio and video recordings by local and international observes, and in spite of the proven widespread incidents of swapping of PDP votes in favour of APC, all of which eroded the validity and credibility of the exercise, INEC has gone ahead to declare the APC candidate as the winner.”

“As a democrat and a law-abiding citizen, I wish to acknowledge the declaration of the results by INEC. We will study the details of the results announced very carefully and communicate our position in the near future.

He urged the people of the state to maintain the peace and keep the dream of rebuilding the state together alive.

In a related development, the APC candidate in the just-concluded governorship election in Taraba State, Senator Aisha Alhassan, has rejected the results of the poll announced by INEC on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference in Jalingo, shortly after the announcement of the results, Alhassan described the entire elections process as “daylight robbery” saying the party would challenge the results in the elections tribunal.

“The combined governorship elections in Taraba were characterised by violence, massive rigging, ballot-snatching and abuse of the card readers in substantial parts of the state by the PDP and their allies,” she said.

She contended that results ascribed to Wukari, Donga, Takum, Sardauna, Zing, Yorro, Kurmi and some parts of Ussa, Karim-Lamido, Bali, Ardo-Kola and Lau local government areas were not acceptable as they did not reflect the true results of the election in Taraba.

Alhassan said all the complaints on the irregularities and abuse of the election guidelines were promptly reported to INEC, but that no action was taken.