Candidates from three political parties — the Labour Party, the African Democratic Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party — have rejected the All Progressives Congress candidate, Akarachi Amadi, as the winner of Saturday’s supplementary election in Mbaitoli/Ikeduru federal of Imo state.
Chinonso Uba, the ADC candidate, claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission rigged the election in favour of the APC candidate.
Uba said that the INEC officials were aided by security agents and thugs allegedly recruited by APC to rig the election.
Declaring himself the real ” hero” of the election, Uba said that he had no godfather but he was able to “fight” till the end.
He disclosed that the figures announced by the INEC were not the true representation of the votes cast by the electorate.
Also, the Labour Party candidate, Uche Ogbuagu, accused INEC of bypassing the Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation Machine System and allocating votes to the APC candidate.
Ogbuagu, who had a margin of lead of 5,058 votes before the supplementary election, said that the APC candidate was hijacking the electoral materials and the INEC officials with the aid of security agents.
He said “I am rejecting everything that will be done about this election that would not stem from the BVAS because today, I witnessed total deviance and bypass of the BVAS.
“Most worrisome was the way and manner the electoral officers of both Mbaitoli and Ikeduru were totally compromised and went ahead to collate results In neglect to the BVAS.
“I hereby request for the review of the results of the six polling in Ikeduru and 52 polling units in Mbaitoli, totalling 58 with BVAS just as it was done on February 25, 2023.”
The PDP candidate disclosed that he would challenge the outcome of the election at the Tribunal.
TUkanacho said, “We are not accepting the outcome of the election. It was massively rigged in favour of the APC candidate. We are heading to the Tribunal.”
The Returning officer for the election, Prof Boniface Okoro, had on Sunday night declared the APC candidate the winner of the election having scored the highest number of votes of 21, 372 votes with his closest rival, Ogbuagu, of the LP polling 18, 296 votes.