Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has slammed the Independent
National Electoral Commission for its decision to declare the state
gubernatorial election inconclusive.
The INEC Returning Officer of
the State, Ibidapo Obe, announced that the election was inconclusive
because the margin (79,529) between the frontrunner, Mr. Okorocha and
his contender, Emeka Ihedioha of Peoples Democratic Party, was less than
the number of registered voters (144,715) in wards across the state
where elections did not hold or were cancelled due to violence.
Mr. Okorocha, while speaking to news men at the Government House in Imo State early Monday, said
“The
electoral act has talked about registered voters and in the workings of
that act and in the spirit of the law, you cannot not make use of
number of registered voters, you have to make use of number of PVC
collected.
“When you look at the number of PVC collected you find out
that there is no need for this supplementary election because the
number of PVC collected will be less than the 79,000 votes difference
between me and the PDP candidate. But now they are basing on the number
of registered voters. Number of registered voters do not cast the vote;
it is the number of PVC collected that does,” You can only change the
date of a burial but you cannot change the burial. From the results
available, the fact speaks for itself, we have won this election despite
all the irregularities, I am the winner”
“Let me say that there is
no basis for comparison when I’m told that I’m in contest with the PDP
candidate and he scored some votes it is not true. I think I’m in
contest with more unseen elements than the candidate himself. If this
election is conducted in the way it should be conducted in a free and
fair manner, my opponent would have up to 100,000 votes. Never. Not in
Imo State; not at all,”
“If you look at what has happened in his
areas of jurisdiction and his local government, Mbaise local government,
Ahiazu, Ezinnite, Aboh Mbaise, where he gave himself almost 80,000
votes. Can you imagine in Aboh Mbaise, you have 51,000 voters when the
actual PVC collected is about 60,000 and in Mbaitoli where you have over
100,000 PVC collected the total votes there is about 30,000 so that
tells you the manipulation. What we saw in those areas was simply the
militarisation of the entire process – snatching of ballot boxes and
violence and what have you.
“But because of these manipulations and
writing of results and taking result sheets and going to somebody’s
house – escorted by security agencies- to write the result and come in
the private car to INEC headquarters, that is why many people think
there is a contest. So I’m not in contest with that gentle man, I’m in
contest with the entire manipulation of the system and the election,”
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