PDP demands removal of Imo REC, Sylva Agu
…wants INEC Chairman to emulate IGP Egbetokun
By Tunde Opalana
Five days to the governorship election in Imo State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Prof. Sylva Agu.
The party urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to yield to the party’s complain by redeploying Agu.
The INEC chairman was urged to emulate the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun who in response to public demand redeployed the state Commissioner of Police.
The PDP premised its demand on the premise of an alleged compromise by the REC, to manipulate the November 11, 2023 governorship elections in Imo States in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, in a statement Monday
“urges the INEC Chairman to take a cue from the Inspector General of Police who redeployed the Commissioners of Police in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States in response to the outcry and demands of the people for neutrality in the November 11, 2023 governorship election in these states.”
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The party charged Prof. Yakubu to “forestall an impending crisis in the Imo State election by heeding the insistent outcry, Petitions and Protests by the people of Imo State, Political Parties, Civil Society Organizations as well as Ohaneze Youth Council for the removal of the Prof. Sylvia Agu who has been allegedly compromised by the APC.”
The PDP in the statement said “the people of Imo State cannot accept any electoral process with Prof. Agu as REC, given her reported role in the brazen manipulation of the 2023 National and House of Assembly elections in Imo State in favour of the APC, which is still in the public domain.
“The redeployment of Sylvia Agu out of Imo State is therefore the only way to restore confidence in the electoral process, guarantee a credible election and avert crisis in the State.
“This is especially so as there are very disturbing allegations in the public space of clandestine meetings between Prof. Agu and certain APC agents said to have been facilitated by her close relative, who is an APC national officer, ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Imo State.
“The PDP calls on the INEC Chairman to note that the integrity of an election principally lies in the confidence of the electorate in the electoral process.
“Prof. Sylvia Agu has lost the rectitude as Resident Electoral Commissioner and should not be part of the conduct of the November 11, 2023 governorship election. Her continuing stay in office as Imo REC is vexatious and a recipe for crisis.”
The PDP therefore restated its demand on the INEC Chairman to immediately redeploy Prof. Sylvia Agu out of Imo State so as to restore the confidence of the people and the integrity of the electoral process.
