From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

Members and supporters of the Labour Party (LP), yesterday, protested at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja as they requested the Certified True Copy (CTC) of Imo State governorship election results.

Kennedy Ahanotu, LP national youth leader, and Athan Achonu, the gubernatorial candidate, led the demonstration.

Speaking at the scene of the protest, Achonu said he won by a wide margin and accused the commission of tampering with the results of the Imo poll. He questioned why it took three days to declare the results of the Bayelsa State election whereas Imo results were announced hastily.

The LP candidate in Imo, Achonu reiterated his intention that he collected the CTC for legal action. He said the LP had written to the commission since Monday, requesting the CTC of the election results, but they had not received any response. “We won that election by a landslide. INEC to our greatest shock and surprise, by 10am that day, had started uploading pre-written results into its portal. So, when collation started, our state collation agent duly asked INEC not to announce any result because collation started very early that day even while people were still voting. They uploaded to the IREV even while voting was taking place. So, how did that happen?

“Our agent asked them to go to their backend server and confirm the results that they were about to announce, that they were not correct but INEC refused. The returning officer insisted because he had an agenda. It took three days to announce the results of Bayelsa State that has just eight local governments while Imo State with 27 local governments took just two hours to announce the results. They hurriedly announced the results of that election even before the seven days that were allowed for review had passed.

“So, we duly wrote to INEC asking it to review that election. On Monday, we wrote to the commission asking it to give us access to the same results of the election they said we lost, but up till today, we have not received permission to collect the CTC of that election.So, we are going to march into INEC now and collect our CTC by ourselves.  I won’t leave here till I get it today,” he said.

Also speaking, Ahanotu lamented the fact that INEC, which ought to be the backbone of democracy, was now perceived as political. “INEC is supposed to be the conscience and soul of democracy. INEC is supposed to be as neutral as water. But today, we see INEC bending towards taking a side in the matter it is refereeing.”

Responding, INEC, represented by Malam Mohammed Haruna National Commissioner INEC, in company of Prof. Abdulahi Zuru another National Commissioner, assured LP of its cooperation.

“The Chairman said we should come on behalf of the commission to receive your petition. CTC is your right, it is the right of every petitioner and I assure you, you will get it. It will be attended to because this is your right,” he said.