Athan Achonu, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate for Imo State, along with a group of his supporters, recently staged a protest at the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja. The demonstration was a call for INEC to release the true certified copy (CTC) of the results from the recent gubernatorial election in Imo State.informationguidenigeria
Accompanied by the National Youth Leader of the Labour Party, Kennedy Ahanotu, Achonu expressed allegations of double standards by INEC in the conduct of the November 11 off-cycle election.NYSC PORTAL
The protest took place two weeks after INEC declared Governor Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner, having polled 540,308 votes. This result was contested by Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who received 71,503 votes, and Achonu himself, who secured 64,081 votes.
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Both opposition candidates, Achonu and Anyanwu, have rejected the declared result, citing electoral irregularities. The protest march saw demonstrators chanting solidarity songs and displaying banners with messages urging INEC to respect the law and criticizing the commission’s role in the electoral process.JAMB Result
In his address to the media in front of the INEC building, Achonu criticized the commission for what he perceived as a rushed and non-transparent process in Imo State, contrasting it with the election process in Bayelsa, which took three days. He accused INEC of refusing to provide a copy of the Imo poll CTC, suggesting that the commission might be concealing information. This development highlights ongoing concerns regarding electoral transparency and fairness in Nigeria’s democratic process.
He said, “When collation started after the voting, our state election agent duly asked INEC not to announce any result that collation started very early that day even when voting was going on. They were even uploading results on iREV when voting was taking place. So how did that happen? They were told to go to their backend server and confirm the result they were about to announce. But INEC refused to do that. The returning insisted they should go on because they had a hidden agenda.
“Meanwhile it took Bayelsa which has just eight local governments almost three days to announce their result. But in Imo which has 27 local governments, it took them just two hours to announce the result that was already uploaded.
“So we duly wrote to INEC asking them to review the election. They hurriedly announced the result, even before the seven days allowed for review lapsed. Up till today when we are speaking, we have not received the certified copy of that result despite writing them officially. We will not leave here today until we collect the CTC since INEC has refused to come out and address us.”JAMB Portal
While the demonstration was ongoing, two INEC national commissioners, Mohammed Haruna and Prof Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, came out to address the group.
While urging the protesters to exercise patience, Haruna promised them their grievance would be addressed by the commission in earnest.
“We understand you have come here with a petition. The national chairman (Prof Yakubu Mahmood) asked the two of us to come here on his behalf on behalf to receive your petition. And I assure you (it will be addressed because this is your right.
“The CTC you requested is always collected at the state level. So we have a copy of your letter here now, I assure you it will attended to,” he stated.
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