Youths from the Isu state constituency in Imo state, on Tuesday, stormed the Owerri office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, alleging that INEC, declared old results and not the new results from the supplementary election held last Saturday in the state.

The protest was led by Fidelis Ibewuike and took place at the INEC office located along Port Harcourt Road in Owerri.

They alleged that the declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Modestus Osakwe, was faulty.

According to the demands of the youths, first recalled that “Our election was declared inconclusive because the number of votes from polling units where the election did not hold was higher than the number of the leading party the PDP: Here are the facts: APC = 4,907 votes, PDP = 5,390 votes. These were the figures at the time election was declared inconclusive.

“INEC must review the fraudulent declaration of the results which returned the PDP’s candidate with a view of annulling it. The figures used in the declaration were not the figures from the supplementary election held Saturday, April 15^th, 2023. Imo REC must instruct for the final collation of the results from the supplementary election and announce the winner from it without any further delay.

“From the figures gotten from our situation room in the collation exercise from our field agents, our candidate, Barr. Kingsley Ozurumba of the APC polled the highest of lawful votes and must be declared the winner of the exercise,” they said.

They argued that “Why was the APC and the PDP allocated the same number of votes as before the supplementary election as the newly declared results after the supplementary election?

“The returning officer while announcing the PDP’s candidate as the winner said that the party scored 5,390 votes the same figures scored during the last election —what were the scores of the party for the supplementary election? If the PDP could be declared the winner with results from the last election without any recourse to the new supplementary election figures, why then was the rationale for the supplementary election to hold?” they said.

Responding to their petition, the Imo INEC’s Director for voter education/publicity Mrs Emmanuela Ben Opara received the protest letter promising to make sure that it gets to the REC. (Vanguard)

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