Imo election: Group petitions INEC, decries alleged murder of 40-year-old

George Onyejiuwa

The Campaign Organisation of Mr. Obinna Ogazi (Brain Box) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Imo state to cancel results for Njaba state constituency election where Mrs. Uju Onwudiwe was purportedly declared the winner.

Obinna Ogazi who is the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), pointed out that it was improper for the INEC to have declared Uju Onwudiwe the winner of the state constituency where his cousin Mr. Polycarp Aguguo, 40, was murdered by thugs in broad day light.

The APGA state Assembly candidate who stated this on Thursday during a press conference in Owerri, lamented what he described as the ‘gruesome murder’ of his cousin, Mr Uchenna Aguguo, a 40-year-old whom he revealed had travelled down to the state from Mozambique just to exercise his civic responsibility.

Ogazi said that the late Aguguo was gunned down at his polling unit boot 004, Umuaka Ward 4.

According to him, the polling unit is same as that of his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Mr Polycarp Ekwunazu.

He called on the police and INEC to unravel the circumstances surrounding Aguguo’s death while insisting that the commission should cancel the results for Njaba state constituency.

“It is improper to declare Uju Onwudiwe of the Action Alliance (AA) winner in an election where 6,000 votes were canceled in 13 polling units, whereas the purported winner’s margin of lead is much less than the number of canceled votes.

“We take that to be a technical way of denying other candidates a possible mandate, more so with the event of the murder of 40-year-old Aguguo just after casting his ballot.

“We, therefore, call on INEC to act speedily on the petition we already sent to the commission by canceling the results of that election and unraveling the circumstances behind Aguguo’s gruesome murder,” he said.

Reacting, the Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), SPO Orlando Ikeokwu, said that “the police are on top of the situation and anyone with useful information that can aid the arrest of the culprit will be rewarded.”