Posted by Samuel on Thu 16th Mar, 2023 - tori.ng
The protest was led by the state Chairman, of the PDP, Charles Ugwuh, alongside members of the party who demonstrated at the INEC, office along Port Harcourt road in Owerri.
The Imo state Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has staged a protest.
The Imo PDP on Wednesday staged a protest at the Owerri office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and that the PDP, would resist this time around, any attempt to rig this week’s Saturday elections in Imo State.
The protest was led by the state Chairman, of the PDP, Charles Ugwuh, alongside members of the party who demonstrated at the INEC, office along Port Harcourt road in Owerri.
The party said that it was worried that the alleged rigging and manipulation of election results from the last election may be repeated in the state.
According to PDP, “The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), writes to complain and to decry in no uncertain terms the series of atrocities committed by both regular and ad hoc staff of INEC, in connivance with the members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), concerning the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Imo State, which were held on 25th February 2023.
“We were indeed taken aback at the brazenness of the electoral heist perpetrated against our respective parties, and the people of Imo State after the official conclusion of voting on the said day when it had become obvious that the ruling APC was losing massively all over the state.
“It is on record that in Okigwe LGA, elections did not hold in seven (7) electoral wards namely, Ihube, Agbobu, Ndimoko, Ofeimo/Ibinta/Okanachi/Umuowa Ibu, Aku, Umulolo, Ogii, and Amuro Wards, but over forty thousand (40,000) votes were fraudulently manufactured and credited to APC in this LGA which recorded less than three thousand (3,000) authentic votes from the other four (4) wards where elections took place.
“The reckless impunity was replicated in other Local Government Areas, such as Aboh Mbaise, Ehime Mbano, and Oguta, and indeed results from Jigawa State were uploaded and transmitted to INEC’s iREV Portal, in place of the authentic results from those areas. For Orsu, Oru East, and parts of Orlu LGAs where elections did not hold at all, results from the same Jigawa State were equally uploaded and transmitted to the iREV Portal as results from those areas; and all these were scandalously accepted by your Commission, and declared as real.
We were also bewildered that on 10th March 2023, fictitious results concocted by your staff and APC agents for Okigwe and other LGAs were being uploaded to the iREV portal in place of the earlier results from Jigawa State. This is indeed a clear indication that your office manipulated the BVAS machines, contrary to INEC’s claims that the machines were programmed to automatically shut down at the end of voting at polling units. We are still wondering how this magic was possible.”
“In the light of the above, we are hereby serving notice to you, members of your staff, and any other interested persons that we shall no longer condone any form of manipulation, or any other acts capable of undermining the corporate will of the people, and the integrity of our electoral system. We expect a more professional approach from your Commission in the forthcoming House of Assembly elections billed for Saturday 18th March 2023. The people shall resist any act by your Commission or by any other persons, intended to subvert their popular preferences, he said.