The Labour Party candidate in last Saturday’s governorship election in Imo State, Athan Achonu, has insisted he was the winner of the poll.
Achonu, who spoke in a release on Wednesday by his spokesperson, Chibuikem Diala, denied congratulating Governor Hope Uzodimma, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Achonu also debunked the claim that he had visited and agreed to work with Uzodimma.
According to the statement, the claim was seen “as a script from the pit of hell and could only be the handwork of evil minds, which this government is well known for.”
“After foisting the worst electoral heist on Imo State, the governor and his bootlickers are spreading fake news purporting that his opponents in last Saturday’s election had paid him a congratulatory visit,” Diala said.
He described the congratulatory story as “childish and very poorly written. For the avoidance of doubt, Senator Achonu had since categorically rejected the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and called for its review and cancellation.”
“He had also held a joint press briefing with Samuel Anyanwu (SamDaddy), the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, and insisted that the result of the governorship election must be reviewed or cancelled, warning that unless the INEC did so, the people might revolt,” Diala said.
Recall that SaharaReporters earlier reported how the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party called for the cancellation of the Imo State governorship election because of alleged manipulation of results and rigging.
The governorship candidates, who said they had expected the INEC to use the election to redeem itself from the shenanigans of the February 25 presidential election and March 18 governorship election, wondered how Nigerian people could trust the commission with its mantra of conducting a free, fair and credible election in Nigeria again.
Achonu had said INEC announced results of areas without any form of accreditation whatsoever, added that “where there was accreditation, results were already preloaded by 10 am in the morning even when voting was still ongoing.”
He noted that it was because of the infractions that the chairman of Labour Party called on INEC to check their backend, get the actual result so that the collation would stop, but the party regretted that the electoral umpire “didn’t listen because they had already planned this.”
According to him, from the information available, it was even the Electoral Officers (EOs) who were sharing the money from government to RAs and the collation officers. “They have already given them pre-written results. So the party completely refused, we have now written to the INEC chairman for total review of that election so that whoever that is the victor be announced or outright cancellation of the election.”
