With the date for the rerun of the inconclusive governorship elections in over 200 wards in Imo State drawing nearer, the Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha seems no longer confi with the Imo state INEC REC, hence he is calling for his removal asap. You would recall that the Imo governorship election was declared inconclusive due to the large number of cancelled votes compared to the difference between the two leading candidates.
But it is worthy to ask how Okorocha wants Imo REC removed halfway in an election he started and a new REC appointed to organize the rerun. Peradventure the REC is removed, it will take a new REC at least between three to six months to study the system in the state and then can organize the rerun. By that time Okorocha's tenure would have ended and he would have handed over to a caretaker committee who would over see the rerun. What advantage will this give Oro? Below is a press release as signed by Sam Onwuemeodo
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media. ............................;
''This is to inform Nigerians that the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the State (Imo), Dr. Gabriel Adah was never qualified for the position he is now occupying because he is a Card-carrying member of the PDP, and was brought in for the job by the PDP Candidate in the State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
The State Government is also aware that Dr. Gabriel Adah was one time Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly and was sent to the State to do a hatchet job for the PDP and its Candidate, Hon. Ihedioha.
We had these pieces of information on Dr. Adah even before the election. But on our part, we had believed that even when he was sent to work for a particular Candidate and Party, he could also be guided by wisdom to do the right things. But we have discovered that he has failed or refused to exercise the wisdom that mostly goes with age and experiences in life.
Dr. Adah organized the governorship election in the State with a winner in mind. He under-rated the Imo people’s love for their Governor Owelle Rochas. When Dr. Adah saw that the results of the election were not favourable to the PDP Candidate he had in mind, he declared the election inconclusive. An electron, a clear winner had emerged both in spread and in figures. And even considering the number of seats won by the APC in the Assembly election. Dr. Adah wants a man who could only minimal Political strength in seven Local Governments out of 27 in the State to win and not the Candidate who won 20 Local Governments out of 27.
As we write, nobody has seen the result sheets from Aboh Mbaise where the PDP Candidate returned more than 55,000 votes, with no result sheets for the figure. Dr. Adah accepted the results even when he knew that there was no election anywhere in Aboh Mbaise and the other two Local Governments of Ahiazu and E zinihitte Mbaise where the PDP Candidate comes from. Ninety-two percent of all the votes he got came from Mbaise area.
The Returning Officer for Ezinihitte doctored the result of the election in INEC Office Owerri by allocating 48,844 votes to the PDP and it took the alarm raised by the APC agents to force the REC to order for the result sheets of the LGA to be looked at again. And at the end of that, it was discovered that PDP had 29,677, which they had earlier allocated to the Party. Infact, the REC has been an agent of the PDP.
The REC encouraged the Returning Officer for Oru-East to claim at the point of submitting the results that she entered the results under duress when there was no case of molestation or intimidation reported by her or any of the security agencies to that effect before the submission of the results at INEC headquarters. Yet, Dr. Adah took her serious. He could not order for her arrest to be investigated and he could not also order for the arrest of the Returning Officer for Ezinihitte who doctored the figures at the point of submission.
It is important at this stage to call on Prof. Attahiru Jega to investigate the activities and conduct of Dr. Adah as the REC in the State and look into the allegations against him for the necessary actions by the commission.
Sam Onwuemeodo
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media
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