Reports monitored in Imo State by Global Reporters Vienna are
showing that the state is boiling and if the manipulative and
controversial State Assembly election that was held last weekend in
Oguta should be the test of future
elections in the state, then Imo is in for a shocker that has suggested a
bloody
2015 gubernatorial election.
 |
| Senator Hope Uzodinma |
Immediately after the inconclusive State Assembly election according
to INEC held last Saturday in Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha held a world
conference where he showed purported duly signed results of the elections as it
favored his party All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate Walter
Uzonwanne. While he urged INEC to
declare the results of the elections he alleged had already been concluded, he accused
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) top hierarchy to have made a telephone call
to one of the officials of the commission that led to the stoppage of
announcing the already signed result sheets. A telephone call many pro Okorocha have said
was from “the Oga at the top”. But contrarily to this claim, Hope Uzodinma, a
Senator representing Orlu Senatorial Zone (Imo West) where the elections took
place, addressed journalists in Abuja on the same issue and lambasted Okorocha whom
he said was not in any place near the election grounds to say the things he had
said and called him “ a serial law breaker” that INEC must be very careful about.
He went further to say that Okorocha paraded forged results in his world
conference and had “no respect for either due process or rule of law”. Also
amongst other things he said the rascality of Okorocha’s lieutenants and thugs marred
the election.
Below is an excerpt from his address in Abuja.
… “The
Okorocha-led government in Imo State is a government that has no respect for
either due process or the rule of law. The APGA government in Imo State has
shown enough knack for lawlessness to worry all sane minds. I got so worried at
a point that I wrote a confidential letter to the governor (which I will now
make public), advising him to respect the constitution, he swore to protect and
the rule of law which is the lynchpin of democracy. This was in February 2012. Over
a year after, I have come to the informed conclusion that Governor Rochas
Okorocha has an incurable phobia for law and order. His latest display of
unbridled brigandry at the Oguta election is a further proof of this. INEC must
therefore constantly watch its back as this man can do anything to torpedo due
process.
“Since the
bye-election was in my constituency and my party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party
(PDP) was contesting in the election, I was personally present at the election.
It therefore came to me as a rude shock that the State Governor, Rochas
Okorocha, who was nowhere near the election venue, went out of his way to churn
out falsehood and raise undue alarm over the said election. I have therefore
invited you to set the records straight with a firsthand account of what
happened at the election.
“At the start of
the election, the conduct was orderly and peaceful except Osemoto ward that was
taken over by government thugs and hoodlums. However mid-way, apparently
sensing impending defeat, the APGA led state government unleashed thugs and
hooligans on all the wards in Oguta Local Government Area. The Security agents
rose to the challenge and were able to contain the thugs in many of the wards
and election continued in those wards. But in Osemoto and Egbuoma/Ekwe wards,
the thugs overwhelmed the security agents and disrupted the electoral process.
Following
the sheer impudence of these thugs in the said Osemoto and Egbuoma/Ekwe wards,
election could not take place in all the booths in these wards because the electoral
officers and ad-hoc workers ran for their dear lives and abandoned the
booths.
To the chagrin of many observers a few minutes after the show of shame
in these wards, well known government officials stormed the INEC office in
Oguta with results for the wards where election did not hold. The team was led
by Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law to Governor Rochas Okorocha who is also the
Commissioner for Lands in Imo State. The Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Mbanaso and
Mr. Kenneth Emelu, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports were also in the team.
The cooked results were handed over to Lady Dorathy Akpuchukwu, Electoral
Officer in Oguta, who most unbelievably accepted them. To be fair, her conduct
was not totally unexpected. The PDP in the state had always doubted her
impartiality as an umpire, and the party has made that known to anybody who
cared to listen.
“As it stands now,
the PDP is leading in the results announced for the other wards with 7585 to
APGA’s 7241. I must add that in the entire election process, the PDP members
remained calm and exhibited a great sense of maturity.
“I am aware that
when the state government’s plan ‘A’ for rigging the election failed, it
resorted to its plan ‘B’ which is to bribe the electoral officials and induce
INEC to announce results for Osemoto and Egbuoma/Egwe wards. To this end, state
government officials have held series of meetings with the collation officers
involved in the election. These meetings were held at Lamonde Hotel, Okigwe
Road in Owerri. The hotel is owned by the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha. One
of such meetings was held last Monday, July 1, 2013. The Governor knows what
transpired in that meeting.
Shortly after the said meeting, Governor Rochas
Okorocha addressed a press conference and called on INEC to declare the APGA
candidate winner of the election. I suspect that the sudden courage to make the
call on INEC must have been borne out of the outcome of the said meeting with
some collation officials in Owerri,” said Senator Hope Uzodinma
Culled from www.globalreportersvienna.com
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