By Ivlas Adama
The last is yet to be heard on the controversy-ladden Imo State Local Government Area elections of Saturday 21st September, 2024, as the candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the chairmanship of Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, Chief Dr. Collins Osuagwu, has blasted the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission, (ISIEC) for announcing results without conducting a proper election.
“There was no election. I can tell you that authoritatively because I drove round the wards in my local government area, Isiala Mbano and my Councillors were calling me from their various wards, reporting that there was nothing like election in their wards”
Those were the words of Osuagwu in a chat with journalists in Owerri, capital of Imo State on Wednesday 25th September, 2024.
According to Osuagwu some of the reported anomalies include thumb-printing of ballot papers, and vote buying.
He further revealed, “From my ward, I drove down to the local government headquarters with my police escort. The riggers allowed me to enter through the gate because they must have thought that I was one of them. I saw what was going on there and turned back.”
Said he, “In a number of cases, the electoral officers arrived after 5pm and people who were obviously APC members were lined up to show their voters cards and they were captured on video to deceive people that voting took place but they were chased away by angry youths.”
He cited a scenario where “A lady who I was told is a Commissioner, was supervising thumb-printing after which the people were paid for coming to participate in the scam”
He also decried “the lack of preparedness for the exercise by ISIEC” saying “the impromptu imposition of fifty thousand naira and two hundred thousand naira validation fees on Councillorship and Chairmanship candidates respectively, was not agreed between the political parties and ISIEC”
He berated the electoral umpire for “allowing itself to be used to “commit electoral illegalities including contravention of its own guidelines governed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which it distributed to political parties and their candidates”
Against this backdrop, the boss of Zeus Marina Oil and Gas Limited revealed that he has already instructed his lawyers to “approach the courts for nullification of the so-called election, dismantling of ISIEC and preparation for a proper credible election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the former lacks the capacity to conduct the exercise.”