Posted by By TOPE ADEBOBOYE on
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against manipulating the results of tomorrow's governorship election in Imo State in favour of an already anointed candidate, saying any electoral fraud would precipitate untold chaos and violence throughout the state and beyond.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against manipulating the results of tomorrow's governorship election in Imo State in favour of an already anointed candidate, saying any electoral fraud would precipitate untold chaos and violence throughout the state and beyond.
The warning came as the party's governorship candidate in the election, Chief Martin Agbaso alleged that the electoral body had already completed the results of the yet-to-be-conducted polls and was only awaiting the right time to make the announcement.
In a letter sent to INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, signed by the party's chairman in Imo State, Prince Cletus C. Nwaka, and its secretary, Chief Mike Nwachukwu, the party cautioned INEC against engaging in any acts that could frustrate the peoples' will.
"We hasten to caution that the peaceful nature of the Imo citizens should not be taken for a ride as to enable INEC, its officials or anybody for that matter to frustrate the people's choice of a governor as such reprehensible act will precipitate crises, strife and destruction which may reduce the monumental destruction occasioned by the Otokoto killings in September 1996 a child's play," the party warned.
The party accused the electoral body of shortchanging it in the April 14 governorship polls in the state when "the victory of our candidate, Chief Martin Agbaso was subverted by the very INEC that is supposed to be an independent and fair arbiter."
The statement dismissed the reasons adduced by INEC for canceling the elections in Imo State, saying the polls were annulled because APGA candidate had carried the day.
"During the referred election, agents of the candidates of the respective political parties were barred from the INEC headquarters in Imo State, when on the contrary, they are supposed to be present for the purposes of the transparent collation of local government results at the state level. This action created room for the smuggling into the Imo State INEC headquarters of pre-prepared result sheets in favour of your preferred candidate which your commission was going to announce as the authentic result of the April 14, 2007 governorship election," the party said, adding that it had uncovered another plot to similarly manipulate Saturday's polls to favour a preferred candidate.
"Reports reveal that the grand design by INEC is to issue false result sheets to electoral officials in public while the genuine results sheets are kept only to be secretly completed with a view to returning your preferred candidate as the winner. This fear is heightened by the people's previous benumbing experience of the shocking cancellation of the previous governorship election," it further stated.
In the letter, copies of which were also sent to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Achike Udenwa, religious leaders and the security agencies, the party called for a full implementation of electoral guidelines set out in the Electoral Act.
This, according to the party, included public distribution of electoral materials, serialisation of results sheets, as well as the proper public record of the serial numbers of the result sheets distributed in every polling booth in the state "duly authenticated by the agents of political parties and INEC electoral officers and local government area returning officers."
The party also tasked the electoral body to ensure that results of the elections are transparently collated and declared at each polling booth, ward and local government collation centers, with the result sheets "authenticated by agents of the political parties and copies given to them and to appropriate security agencies on the spot."
APGA is also demanding that the collation of ballots at the state level be done in the presence of the media, international poll monitors and agents of political parties. "A list of those that will conduct the election should be made public at least 24 hours before the election and the participating political parties advised accordingly," the party further said, even as it said the result sheets collated be made public after the election to ensure that the serial numbers do not differ from what had earlier been made public.
The party, while accusing Iwu of "showing an uncommon bias in the conduct of the governorship election in Imo State," said attempts to perpetrate electoral fraud would be massively resisted by the people.