A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party in the State, Chief Anderson Iheme has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state to review the conduct of the last House of Assembly bye-election in Ngor Okpala and ensure that those responsible for the orgy of violence, ballot snatching and thumb printing of ballot papers are fished out and prosecuted to act as deterrent to others inline with the electoral law. Chief Iheme was speaking following statement by the State REC, Prof. Francis Ezeonu on Sunday that staffs of the Commission were abducted, blindfolded and taken to unknown places while the election was in progress. Iheme described as very worrisome the level of electoral malpractice observed in the election where, according to him, the ruling APC allegedly used thugs and suspected fake security operatives to cart away voting materials and inflicted large scale disturbance that has never been witnessed in the conduct of elections in any part of the state before.“This is the height of electoral brigandage ever witnessed in Imo State as far as my memory can carry me. What happened in the by-election was a complete sham and INEC must rise up and show capacity by fishing out those behind the disturbance and prosecute them in accordance with the electoral law. We cannot continue to live by this type of scenario and expect to have peace and security in the land. INEC owes a duty to protect all sides in any election by taking appropriate measures to identify any party or person involved in electoral disturbance and punish them accordingly”, he stated. The Mbieri born Iheme who spoke to our newspaper from his base in USA thanked members and the leadership of PDP for maintaining calm in the face of provocation,noting that the party had shown discipline for which it is known for over the years. He urged the members not to allow the bye-election charade to weigh them down but to redouble effort in ensuring that the party won the 2023 governorship and other elections to prove that its influence in the state is not a fluke. He was emphatic that the only party that has the blue print to develop the state and restore true friendship and lasting peace is the Peoples Democratic Party. While congratulating the candidate of PDP, Hon. Jeff Nwachukwu for putting up a strong fight, Iheme noted that despite the massive rigging done by APC, it did not significantly affect the margin of the result which PDP is contesting as fraudulent. He called on the party to challenge the result at the tribunal and ensure that the mandate was recovered. He commended the members of PDP in particular and the entire Ngor Okpala people for their strong support for PDP and appealed to them not to despair but be confident that the victory of PDP must be restored.
