The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) governorship candidates in Imo State, Senators Samuel Anyanwu and Athan Achonu, on Tuesday, staged a walkout at an INEC-organized stakeholders’ meeting to demand the redeployment of the state’s Resident Electoral (REC), Professor Sylva Agu.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) arranged the stakeholders’ meeting as a part of its pre-election contacts with the media, civil society organisations, security agencies, and candidates running for governor.
The meeting was presided over by Kenneth Ukeagu, the INEC National Commissioner for Yakubu’s South-East region.After Ukeagu’s opening remarks, the journalists were told to shut down their cameras and gadgets and exit the auditorium, which caused chaos at the inaugural Owerri meeting.But Jones Onyereri, the PDP candidate for governor, and Mr Tony Nwulu, the LP candidate, who stood in for their flagbearers, as well as other opposition political party representatives, harshly disagreed with the order.They maintained that the media could not be kept out of the meeting since they were important participants.
Nwulu said that INEC was planning to rig the election in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and questioned whether the gathering was “a secret cult affair.”
Speaking in favour of Nwulu, Onyereri produced copies of what he claimed to be forged results sheets that had been uploaded to the INEC website during the state’s House of Assembly election.
The session turned rowdy, as supporters of both the ruling and opposition parties rained abuses on each other, with the situation nearly degenerating into fisticuffs.
After roughly twenty minutes, everything was back to normal, and several parties involved demanded peace. However, chaos broke out once more when Macron Nlemigbo, a high-ranking member of the APC, verbally attacked the state chairman of the LP.
“The chairman upheld the party’s stance that Agu’s appointment as REC would make it impossible to hold a legitimate, free, and fair election.
When Ukeagu disregarded Nlemigbo’s insulting comments, Nwulu, Onyereri, and their allies stormed out of the hall.
Onyereri informed reporters that he had to leave the meeting because the INEC commissioner had given the impression, through his gestures and body language, that he was in league with the Imo APC.
“The PDP is resolute on its demand that the REC, Professor Sylvia Agu, be redeployed, and the refusal of INEC to look into our demand indicates that there is nothing to discuss in this meeting,” he said.
Nwulu also declared that LP walked out of the meeting because they could not trust Ukeagu or the REC, Agu, to conduct a free and fair election.
He added, “By ignoring our request for the deployment of Professor Agu, it is either that the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu, is deaf or compromised, but we do not trust the REC to conduct a free and fair election. You can even hear officials of the APC bragging in the hall that Professor Agu cannot be removed.”
The state chairman of LP, Callistus Ihejiakwa, said the inability of Ukeagu to take charge of the meeting showed that he was already compromised. Ihejiakwa pointed out that the APC chieftain made threats to his life in the hall but was not called to order.
Chuks Okocha, Kingsley Nwezeh, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja, Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa, Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja and Tony Icheku in Owerri
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