Okigwe North: LP candidate gives INEC 48 hours to review result

Labour Party Candidate for Okigwe North Federal Constituency, Chikwem Onuoha, has given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 48 hours to declare him the winner of the February 25 National Assembly election in Imo state.

INEC had declared Princess Marian Onuoha of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.

Addressing newsmen in Owerri on Wednesday, Onuoha, said that election did not hold in seven wards of Okigwe where insecurity did not allow the people to vote.

He alleged that Princess Mariam Onuoha connived with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Sylvia Agu, to concoct and write results for the seven wards in Okigwe where elections did not hold.

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He said, “As you all know that Okigwe LGA, one of the LGAs that made up our Federal Constituency, has been in the news in recent times for insecurity, no thanks to steady activities of unknown gunmen.

“This recent ugly development in the LGA was captured in the police security report to INEC on February 20, 2023 and was duly acknowledged by the commission. In the said report, the police advised the commission not to have elections held in the six out of the 11 wards in the LGA namely: Ihube, Umuawaebu, Agbuobu, Ụmụlolo, Akụ and and Amuro.

Validating the intelligence of the police, in Ogii ward of the LGA where election was supposed to be held, INEC officers met no one at the polling units as residents were still living in fears. The addition of Ogii makes it seven out of 11 wards that elections were not conducted in the LGA.

“For record purposes, the other four wards where election was witnessed were: Urban ward 1&2, Ezinachi and Umualumuoke wards.

“Shockingly, Princess Miriam Onuoha of the APC manufactured results from the wards election never held and allocated votes to political parties and ridiculously gave herself over thirty thousand (30,000) votes and connived with some corrupt elements in INEC to declare her winner.

“This fraud from Princess Miriam and her cohorts is not legally offensive but morally nauseating.”

He said the people have lost confidence in the REC to conduct the remaining election in the state and urged the commission to remove her as the resident electoral commission.