IMO STATE governorship candidates of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Tony Ejiogu, and the Young Progressives Party, Kemdi Opara in last Saturday’s election have called for the outright cancellation of the exercise in the state.
The call is coming a day after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chief Samuel Anyanywu and his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Athan Achonu also called for the cancellation of the 11 November governorship election.
The APGA and YPP gubernatorial candidates, while addressing journalists in Owerri on Tuesday, ventilated their displeasure even as they described the process that returned Governor Hope Uzodinma for another four years in office as flawed and laced with criminalities.
According to Chief Ejiogu: “The election set a bad precedence, 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 State despite a literacy rate of 97 per cent. We cannot afford to continue like this.”
On his part, the governorship candidate of the YPP, Opara said that the “Election was met with brutal apathy, I have contested House of Representatives seat four times, how can anyone say that I did not win the Mbaitoli Local Government Area, my local government area, 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.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Sunday declared Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress as the duly elected governor of Imo State after he scored a total of 540,008 votes and took a major lead in the 27 local government areas of the state, defeating his closest opponent, Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP who scored 71,503 votes.
Eighteen-Eleven Media