Imo REC was brought in to return PDP to power - Okorocha insists son-in-law won guber election

- Governor Rochas Okorocha has accused the INEC REC in Imo, Prof Francis Chukwuemeka Ezeonu, of wrecking democracy in the state

- The governor said the REC had shown that he was brought to Imo to return the PDP to power in the state

- Okorocha insisted that the election was won by his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu

- The governor accused the REC of changing collation officers and bringing in those who would work in favor of the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha

The Imo state resident electoral commissioner, Professor Francis Chukwuemeka Ezeonu, has been accused by the state governor, Rochas Okorocha, of wrecking democracy in the state over “the worrisome manner he has handled the conduct of the 2019 elections in the state.”

The governor leveled the accusation while speaking to youths protesting over the conduct of the 2019 elections in the state at the Imo Government House on Wednesday, March 13, Daily Trust reports.

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Legit.ng gathers that Okorocha said Ezeonu had shown that he was brought to Imo after the 2015 elections to return the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power in the state.

Okorocha pointed out that the PDP candidate who was declared winner of the governorship election in the state, Emeka Ihedioha, did not meet the constitutional requirement of 25 percent spread in at least two-third of the local governments in the state, before being declared winner.

He said Ikedioha only met the requirement in 9 local governments, instead of 18 LGAs out of 27 LGAs. The governor, thus, asserted that the REC had acted illegally by ignoring the provisions of the constitution.

Okorocha accused Ezeonu of working to set the state on fire. He wondered why the REC should accept the outrageous figures from the three local governments of Mbaise including Aboh Mbaise where the Ihedioha had 64,219 votes.

He insisted that the election was won by his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who he claimed had the required spread by having 25 percent of votes in 21 out of the 27 LGAs in the state.

He said: “I say so because coming by the actual calculation, the person that won this election is Ugwumba Uche Nwosu.

“Uche Nwosu won the election landslide, if you remove the manipulation results from Mbaise, Uche Nwosu won with over 50,000 votes.

“If you cannot declare him a winner because you have someone already, then they should go for a rerun because you cannot change the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because you want to favour a candidate.

“In the course of this manipulation, we all observed that the REC decided not use the collation officers from Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), which he disbanded for reasons he gave that they have met with politicians.

“Again, he brought some people whom he introduced from the University of Agriculture, Umudike, they arrived just a night before the election date and we thought we have gotten the collation officers.

“Again, those ones were disbanded on the same reason that they have met with politicians. I wonder how this is possible; having arrived the state past midnight on the election eve.

“Now, the REC went to his own University in Awka to bring in collation officers. We believed him, not knowing that he brought people he has been training for a hatched job for some weeks now in Anambra state to come and carry out this injustice in Imo state.

“These men arrived with heavy security from Anambra and went straight to the various local governments. We never knew that these were relatives of the PDP candidate and from the same local government.

“These are relatives of the PDP candidate who were already briefed on what to do. This explains the over voting witnessed in Mbaise.

“Out of the 270,000 votes that he scored, 50 percent of it or over 130,000 all came from just three local governments of Mbaise.”

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Governor Rochas Okorocha said INEC’s decision to withhold his Certificate of Return after being declared winner of the Imo West senatorial election was unfortunate and unconstitutional.

The governor stated that after a winner has been declared, it is only the courts that have the powers to nullify any election. He added that the electoral umpire lacked such powers.

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Source: Legit.ng