The Imo State chapter of the Labour Party (LP) has distanced itself from the result of the State’s November 11 governorship poll, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Callistus Ihejiagwa, the Party’s Chairman said this while reacting to the outcome of the election in an interaction with newsmen in Owerri, on Sunday.
According to him, the election was characterized by “attacks, intimidation and stiff opposition to the will of the masses.”
Citing paragraph 48, sub-paragraphs A and B of the electoral guideline, Ihejiagwa said that before the commencement of final collation, he petitioned INEC over the manner of accreditation of voters but his petition fell on deaf ears as the Commission proceeded to collate.
While describing the announced result as unacceptable, he alleged that when he insisted that collation be halted for his Party’s petition to be heard, he was accused of disrupting the process and beaten up by thugs of the All Progressives Congress in the presence of security agents.
“Paragraph 48, sub-paragraphs A and B of the electoral guideline say that collation shall not be done until the Returning Officer confirms that accreditation has been done in line with the provisions of the law.
“This section of the law was contravened and we were denied the inalienable right to a fair hearing despite several calls for our petition to be heard almost two hours before the start of collation.
”But the Returning Officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina insisted that he could not entertain the petition.
“With the RO’s insistence, thugs of the APC beat me up, threw me out of the hall and robbed me of 1,000 dollars and another N50,000 which I had on me.
“Police officers, one of whom I identified as SP Amaechi Kennedy, rather than arrest those who assaulted me, took me to the police station where I was eventually detained in a cell and only released by 11.00 am on Sunday after the announcement of the result, for a crime I was never told,” he said.
Ihejiagwa said the LP had all the evidence of the assault which happened on live TV during collation and would take appropriate measures to seek justice for all the matters raised.
He further expressed dismay over what he described as the inability of security personnel to protect him in the collation centre and INEC’s failure to hear his petition, insisting that the LP’s candidate, Athan Achonu won the election and would prove it in court.
“We took our time to document the anomalies and prepare a strongly worded petition that was never heard and for this reason, we will be seeking judicial redress.
“LP completely dissociated itself from the purported result and will challenge it in court, with all our evidence.
“Our candidate, Sen. Athan Achonu won this election and we’ll retrieve the mandate in court “, he said.
