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By Cosmas Omegoh and Stanley Uzoaro, (Owerri)
A civil rights group, Concerned Nigerians has on Monday wrote a petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) condemning the process that led to the emergence of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Blyden Amajirionwu, as the winner of the Ngor Okpala House of Assembly bye-election which held on Saturday.
The group in a letter titled: “Hope Uzodimma: A threat to Nigeria’s Democracy,” and signed by its convener, Deji Adeyanju, alleged that Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, turned the election into a battleground and accused him of rigging the process in favour of the APC.
But in a swift reaction, the Imo State Commissioner for Information, Mr Declan Emelumba, dismissed the allegation as false, declaring that it rather the PDP that rigged the election. According to him the party was caught in the act.
Recommending steps to INEC to prevent the recurrence of such electoral flaws, Concerned Nigerians called for the immediate cancellation of the Ngor Okpala state constituency election and advised INEC to immediately sensitise on the salient provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, particularly as it relates to its powers to review and cancel elections.
The letter reads in full: “We write this open letter to draw your attention to the imminent threat hovering around Nigeria’s electoral space, particularly the 2023 elections.
“You will recall that on February 26, 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted a bye-election into the Ngor Okpala state constituency election in Imo State. While this election was predicted to be seamless, particularly in view of the recently signed Electoral Act, 2022 and the introduction of BIVAS, we are, however, alarmed to note that the Governor of Imo State, Mr. Hope Uzodimma turned the election into a battleground and blatantly rigged the process in favour of the All Progressives Congress candidate.
“On the day of the election, Governor Hope Uzodima moved the full machinery of government from Owerri to Ngor Okpala where he presided over the blatant rigging. Information made available to us by innocent voters in Ngor Okpala revealed that Governor Hope Uzodima perfected this rigging by compromising the BIVAS machine. This action was successfully carried out after the governor’s cronies stormed Ngor Okpala, allegedly abducted INEC ad hoc staff, commandeered the BIVAS machine, retrieved the total number of accredited voters, and proceeded to engage in massive thumb printing in order to bring the total number of voters in consonance with the total number of accredited voters. Thereafter, the governor’s cronies forced the abducted INEC ad hoc staff to upload the illegally-obtained accreditation and final voting result, to paint a picture of legitimacy. This fraudulently- obtained result was announced by the returning officer under the threat of immediate violence.
“You will also recall that Governor Hope Uzodimma has a history of presenting results at the collation centre and forcing returning officers to declare the said results, irrespective of how the results were obtained. It was in response to the foregoing that the recently passed Electoral Act gave INEC enormous powers to review election results and cancel the same where necessary. We are, however, deeply saddened to note that INEC refused to exercise these powers, even with obvious evidence that its ad hoc staff were kidnapped, but proceeded to declare the candidate of the APC as the winner of the election.
“The implication of the foregoing is that Governor Hope Uzodimma has introduced a new precedent in electoral rigging. A very dangerous precedent! Taking cognisance of Nigerian politicians’ proclivity to embrace every negative electoral practices, we are visibly worried that we may have returned to the dark days of Maurice Iwu’s do or die elections, as a politician only need to get hold of the BIVAS machine and the INEC ad hoc staff to perfect his rigging. Thereafter, he proceeds to the collation centre to defend the rigged result by all means, including subsequent judicial sanction.
“Flowing from the above, we, therefore, urge you to take urgent steps to arrest this situation and ensure that it does not become a national precedent. The first step towards resolving this ugly trend is the immediate cancellation of the Ngor Okpala state constituency election. Additionally, INEC must immediately sensitise the politicians on the salient provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, particularly as it relates to its powers to review and cancel elections. Anything short of this will amount to approving the day light rigging perfected by Governor Hope Uzodimma and his cronies in Ngor Okpala.”
Emelumba had denied the whole allegation, saying made by Concerned Nigerians, maintaining that the APC never contemplated rigging the bye election. He rather it accused the PDP of importing several personalities into Ngor Okpala for the purposes of rigging the election.
Emelumba who also maintained that “APC (and Concerned Nigerians) are crying wolf because they were caught in the act.”
He attributed the success of APC in the election to vigorous campaign.
“You can see in the areas PDP won, we had substantial number of votes cast; it’s just hard work,” he said
