A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, has alleged that Gov. Rochas Okorocha and the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, combined to rape the country’s democratic process by their attempt to subvert the will of the electorate in the Okigwe Senatorial Zone and other State Constituencies where re-run elections held last week going by what he alleged as the large scale manipulation of the election results.
Chief Ohakim who was visibly angered by the subervise manipulation of the election especially that of his Senatorial Zone of Okigwe and those of Isiala Mbano and Oru East State Constituencies futher alleged that what the parties did was worse than the terrorists tendencies of Boko Haram and Militancy of the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA and therefore constitutes a huge threat to the democratic process.
The Okohia, Isiala Mbano born Politician whose feelings were made public in a press release issued in Owerri, noted that in view of the disappointing conduct of INEC in aiding and abetting the stealing of the People’s mandate; the electoral umpire must take immediate steps to pacify the electorate to prevent dire consequence of an angry people.
The ex-governor who listed the litany of irregularities perpetrated by INEC and the APC government in the state accused them of massively manipulating poll results, snatching of ballot materials at gun point, among other “stone age electoral malpractices”.
According to him, the election witnessed the disappearance of collation officers, the use of security personel to harass and intimidate voters, brazen use of money by the government to buy votes, and deliberate non-use of Card Readers for accreditation, while the few places where it was used was characterized by discrepancies between results returned and the record of the card reading machines.
Chief Ohakim urged INEC to take steps to restore peace to the areas affected by declaring the results as announced in the booths and wards to ensure that those the people voted emerged victorious, even as he warned the electoral umpire of serious consequences if it continues to collaborate with politicians in the stealing of peoples mandate.
Nigeria Newspoint
