The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) senatorial candidate in the Saturday 23rd July, 2016 Imo North rerun poll, Chief Athan Achonu, has rejected the inconclusive result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer, Prof Arinze Agbogu, saying that he should officially be declared winner.
The electoral body also declared inconclusive the results of Oru East and Isiala Mbano State Constituencies, following reported cases of shootings and thuggery that characterised the exercise in some communities in the two affected areas.
At a press conference in Owerri, Achonu called on INEC to declare him the winner of the election based on the results from the polling units in the zone
He accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of beating and chasing away the PDP agents who had the authentic results from their different wards with their recruited fake soldiers and armed thugs.
According to him, from the results available from Okigwe LGA, PDP pulled 5,128, while APC scored 5,909 as against the result declared by INEC which shows that APC scored 9,355, with PDP pulling 4,343.
He said that the Ihitte/Uboma LGA result shows that PDP pulled 5,119, APC 8,861 as against the INEC result of PDP 5,184, while APC scored 10,170 among others.
Describing what transpired at the election as shame, he called on INEC to review their earlier announcement while urging the Chief of Army Staff and Mr. President to determine who the soldiers were.
Also speaking, the former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, accused INEC’s staff of conniving with state government to rig PDP out.
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He said: “We shall not accept that the election was inconclusive, rather INEC should declare PDP candidate the winner of the election”.
Governor Rochas Okorocha has thanked the electorate in Okigwe Senatorial Zone, Oru-East and Owerri West State Constituencies for voting for the candidates of the APC.
In the case of the Okigwe zone senatorial election, the governor said that although INEC declared the election inconclusive after cancelling the result from Osuachara ward in Isiala Mbano LGA, but the figures already on ground showed that the APC candidate, Ben Uwajumogu, was in a very comfortable lead to the extent that whatever would be the outcome of the Osuachara ward at the end of the day won’t affect his victory.
Prof. Agbogu who announced the result on Sunday, however said Mr. Ben Uwajumogu, APC’s senatorial candidate, polled 48,921, while that of PDP’s Athan Achonu scored 40,142 votes to emerge second in the already declared result.
He explained that results of several polling units in Isiala Mbano area were characterised by irregularities leading to cancelation of the results.
Agbogu explained that the exercise was cancelled in 15 polling units with a total of 13,000 registered voters.
According to him, the difference between the candidate with the highest score and the second stood at 8,777 votes. Meanwhile Okorocha has said that with the victory of APC senatorial candidate, the position of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekeremadu, was under threat.
