Governorship candidate of Action Alliance, AA, in Imo state, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu has alleged that Emeka Ihedioha, the governor-elect on the platform of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, is colluding with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to tamper results from the keenly-contested gubernatorial election.
The allegation was made on Tuesday in a statement issued to newsmen by the Ugwumba Uche Nwosu Campaign director of Media and Publicity, Onwusoanya Jones.
The statement read, “We wish to call the attention of relevant stakeholders, Imolites and the general public to attempts being made by the People’s Democratic Party and its erroneously declared winner of March 9th inconclusive governorship election in the State, to tamper with the final result of the governorship election in Imo State.
“The PDP and Chief Emeka Ihedioha, having realized that the declaration by the Returning Officer, Professor Francis Otunta was in error, as they did not meet the Constitutional requirement to be declared winner of the election is making frantic efforts to tamper with the final result of the election with an aim to change the figures of some LGAs to meet up with the Constitutionally required 25% in at least 18 LGAs of the State.
“Even though the result is already in the public domain, as some television stations broadcast the collation live, and a number of journalists covered it, several Party agents, including our own agents also have the duplicate copies of the result, the PDP is however not deterred as they collude with some corrupt elements within the Independent National Electoral Commission in an attempt to tamper with the results. Chief Emeka Ihedioha is said to have earmarked about One billion Naira for this purpose.
“Intelligence intercepted by us revealed that Chief Emeka Ihedioha’s legal team had told him in plain terms that it would amount to a waste of time, defending his erroneous victory in court, as it is a clear Constitutional issue, which no judge can overlook. The only window available to them is to change the figures of some LGAs, like Ideato North, Isu, Njaba, Nwangele, Nkwere and few other LGAs where they obviously didn’t meet the 25% requirement. Ihedioha only met the 25% requirement in about 12 LGAs of the State instead of at least, 18, which is the 2/3 of the 27 LGAs of the State.
“The PDP legal team has allegedly assured them that they would deploy technicalities and backhand tactics to ensure that the original result of the election is rejected by the judges and their mutilated results admitted as the correct result of the governorship election.
“Let us therefore call on the management of the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that its integrity is not further tainted by the actions of some bad eggs within the Commission. We demand that the election result as announced on the 12th of March, and captured by several television and radio stations should be kept intact and any mutilation is criminal and that the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Imo State, Professor Francis Ezeonu shall be criminally liable, should the result be tampered with by anyone.
“Once again, we urge our teeming supporters and indeed the entire Imolites to remain steadfast in their support for His Excellency Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, who shall in due time be declared the authentic winner of the governorship election.”
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