SaharaReporters has just learnt that a huge crowd has gathered in front of the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Owerri, capital of Imo State to protest the commission’s refusal to declare the result of Tuesday’s governorship election in which incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim was trounced. The demonstrators have converged on INEC’s headquarters along Port Harcourt Road.
SaharaReporters has just learnt that a huge crowd has gathered in front of the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Owerri, capital of Imo State to protest the commission’s refusal to declare the result of Tuesday’s governorship election in which incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim was trounced. The demonstrators have converged on INEC’s headquarters along Port Harcourt Road.
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Our correspondent in Owerri reported that the crowd is insisting that INEC release the authenticated result, which would show that Rochas Okorocha of the All People’s Grand Alliance (APGA) won the election convincingly.
SaharaReporters had detailed efforts by Mr. Ohakim and some unscrupulous INEC officials to inflate his total vote tally in a desperate bid to force a run-off. Mr. Ohakim, a notorious 419 scam artist before former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and disgraced former INEC chairman Maurice Iwu smuggled him into Government House in Owerri, was widely unpopular and expected to be swept away by the state’s angry electorate.
The current demonstration at the INEC office is the latest episode in a series of events that have created palpable tension in Owerri since yesterday.
“There’s widespread fear that security might break down irreparably if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) continues to stall the release of the governorship election in the state,” a source who works with the State Security Service (SSS) told SaharaReporters. The source added that it was clear that Mr. Ohakim had lost Tuesday’s election.
Apprehension rose in the state this (Thursday) afternoon after two youths were intercepted at the Secretariat Junction, along the ever busy Port Harcourt Road with bags of already thumb printed ballot papers meant for Ngor Okpala local councils, one of the local government areas where a re-run was supposed to be taking place. The ballot papers were thumb printed for the PDP. The youths, who were driving a Mercedes “V-booth,” had three police escorts, further fueling public perception that the state’s police chief was aiding Mr. Ohakim to rig the election.
A joint military and police team took the youths into custody. Their arrest drew a gathering of angry youths to the scene, with some of the protesters chanting that the results of the election be declared forthwith or Imo would go up in flames.
Civil servants have emptied out of the extensive secretariat offices and joined in the demand for the release of voting results.
Meanwhile soldiers and policemen have formed a barricade on the Port Harcourt end of the busy road as angry youths have formed a barricade on the Owerri end, creating a tense stalemate.
“There is no doubt that the PDP wants to steal the election, but the people will resist such falsification with the last pint of their blood,” said a university student.
Earlier today, INEC issued a statement designed to douse rising political tensions in the state. The statement read in part: “In view of the difficulties experienced with the April 26, 2011 governorship and state assembly election in Imo State, which made the Returning Officer to declare the election inconclusive, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has consulted with its lawyers for advice on the next line of action.” INEC has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow, Friday, April 29 to decide on the next step to take.
The commission’s statement urged all parties “to be patient” and to “avoid taking the laws into their hands.” In addition, the statement reiterated the commission’s “resolve to ensure the highest level of integrity and credibility for the electoral process.”
But some of the protesters in Owerri tonight told SaharaReporters that their confidence in INEC had worn thin after the commission’s commissioner in the state declared the results of the election inconclusive. “Imo people are angry,” said one of the demonstrators, adding, “we have suffered too much under the misrule of this rascal of a governor to go to sleep while Chief Ohakim and some colluders in INEC are scheming to thwart the will of the people.”
An aide to a major politician in the state, who was a former minister, told SaharaReporters that the people were aware that the Presidency had applied pressure on INEC to stall the declaration of the APGA governorship candidate, Rochas Okorocha, as the duly elected new governor.
Our sources disclosed that unscrupulous INEC officials, massively bribed by Ohakim, had allowed the PDP to manipulate the election to a stalemate after it emerged that the governor’s party was embarrassingly losing the governorship election to APGA.
In the compromised result so far released by INEC, APGA leads by 12 local government areas to the PDP’s 11. Results from three local government areas were declared inconclusive and one was cancelled outright. Even so, the APGA candidate is leading comfortably in the vote tally, which is why many feel he should be declared as the winner of the election instead of manipulating the process to enable the PDP and its widely loathed candidate, Mr. Ohakim, to wangle a victory.
Many of the protesters disclosed that Imo people were defiant and resilient. “Despite the heavy deployment of troops all over Owerri, we are going to keep vigil at the INEC head office and openly chant our demand that the results be officially released – and that the true winner be given his rightful mandate,” said one of them, a lawyer.
Mr. Victor Umeh, the National Chairman of APGA, was spotted in Owerri on a mission to ensure that right results were called. Soldiers escorted Mr. Umeh to see the two young culprits caught with thumb printed ballots.
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