The Labour Party (LP) candidate in the November 11 governorship election in Imo State, Senator Athan Achonu has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of frustrating his planned petition against the outcome of the election.
Senator Achonu led a protest last Thursday, at the headquarters of INEC in Abuja, to demand the release of a certified true copy (CTC) of the election result, to enable him to file his petition in court.
The LP candidate, at a press conference on Wednesday, said the election management body (EMB) is denying his lawyers access to inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the conduct of the election, in spite of a court order.
He alleged that the delay in allowing his legal team to inspect the BVAS is orchestrated to frustrate him from challenging the outcome of the election, and called on President Bola Tinubu whom he described a democratic, to intervene in the matter.
According to him, Tinubu should rise above partisan politics and ensure that the right thing is done.
“Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was on the street for June 12; he made us believe that he was a democrat fighting for justice, freedom of choice and equal opportunity.
“Well, he is in the same party with Senator Hope Uzodimma, but this country shouldn’t be about party; it should be about quality of persons, what you represent.
“I was in the senate with the first lady, Senator Tinubu. I know the kind of person she is; a person of integrity. How can they allow this kind of thing to happen under their watch?” Achonu wondered.
He recalled that the INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, during the stakeholders’ meeting in Owerri, pledged that result of the election would be collated at the ward, local government and state levels, but regretted that collation never took place in any ward in Imo State.
Achonu accused INEC of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State to announce results that were not signed, even when party agents were raising objections as to the credibility of those results.
“When we came to stakeholders meeting, we told the INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood that there are certain things he needs to put in place for a smooth election.
“One is the removal of the REC (Resident Electoral Commissioner). Secondly is that collation must take place at the ward level, local government level before the state level.
“We insisted that the result sheets must be signed by three officers, a National Commissioner, the REC, and each EO will sign that of his local government so that there will be no manipulation of the result sheets, and he agreed.
“But surprisingly on the election day, there was no collation at the ward level even in some local government. They moved everything to the state, and in those places where there were insecurity and no election result was collated,” Achononu alleged.
He however expressed confidence in the judiciary, adding, “I still have belief and faith in the survival of this country. I still claim that there are some men of integrity within the judiciary. These are men who hold the power of life and death over us; these are men who are supposed to live above reproach.
“There must be one or two of them, I hope I come across one of them in my case. I still believe in this country no matter what anybody says, something will happen.
“I want to think that this will be the first test case for the judiciary; let’s see what happens,” he added.
