By CHARLES IWUOHA

The governorship candidates of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Tony Ejiogu and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kemdi Opara, on Tuesday joined the seven days ultimatum, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the entire last Saturday’s Imo governorship election held in Imo State.

They said this to newsmen in Owerri while condemning the Imo governorship election, where INEC declared Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election.

Their reasons for the cancellation of the election were the issue of over-voting, hijacking of electoral materials to private homes and thumb among other irregularities.

This is coming just a day after, the governorship candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Athan Achonu, and the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Samuel Anyanwu, called for the total cancellation of the Imo governorship election.

According to the APGA’s governorship candidate, Ejiogu, he said: “The election was a bad precedence set, a charade to say the least. Restiveness, criminality, and violence pervading cannot continue.

“I maintain that this election has not been held yet. Over-voting is a serious issue. The claim that the absence of billboards reason for the loss is preposterous, and does not hold water. I campaigned vigorously. Brain drain and opportunity drain are on the rise in Imo despite a literacy rate of 97%. We cannot afford to continue like this.

“For that of the governorship candidate of the YPP, Opara was of the view that; the “Election was met with Brutal apathy, I have contested House of Reps 4 times, how can anyone say that I did not win the Mbaitoli LGA, my LGA, where I was the only guber candidate.

“I’m calling for a cancellation, INEC must redeem itself. Paradigm shift; social media aided campaigns after the ban on billboards. However, the declared results are not a reflection of the situation on the ground.”

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