The gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the November 11 election in Imo State, Athan Achonu in company of his supporters staged a protest at the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Abuja on Thursday.
Athan staged the protest demanding the release of the true certified copy of the gubernatorial election conducted on November 11 in the state.
The protest is coming barely two weeks after INEC declared the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of the guber election, having scored 540,308 votes to beat rivals Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 71,503 votes, and Achonu who scored 64,081 votes.
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Speaking to pressmen, Achonu accused INEC of having something to hide, since they hurriedly announced the results without taking due diligence.
He said, “When collation started after the voting, our state election agent duly asked INEC not to announce any result that collation started very early that day even when voting was going on. They were even uploading results on iREV when voting was taking place.
“So how did that happen? They were told to go to their backend server and confirm the result they were about to announce. But INEC refused to do that. The Returning Officer insisted they should go on because they had a hidden agenda.
“Meanwhile it took Bayelsa which has just eight local governments almost three days to announce their result. But in Imo which has 27 local governments, it took them just two hours to announce the result that was already uploaded.
“So, we duly wrote to INEC asking them to review the election. They hurriedly announced the result, even before the seven days allowed for review lapsed. Up till today when we are speaking, we have not received the certified copy of that result despite writing them officially. We will not leave here today until we collect the CTC since INEC has refused to come out and address us.”
Responding to the protesters, two INEC National Commissioners, Mohammed Haruna and Prof Abdullahi Abdu Zuru said: “We understand you have come here with a petition. The National Chairman, Prof Yakubu Mahmood, asked the two of us to come here on his behalf to receive your petition. And I assure you (it will be addressed because this is your right.
“The CTC you requested is always collected at the state level. So, we have a copy of your letter here now, I assure you it will attended to.”