The four resident electoral commissioners deployed to conduct the supplementary governorship election in Imo State have declared their readiness for the exercise, assuring the people of free, fair and transparent elections. The election will determine who the governor of Imo State will be for the next four years. The incumbent governor, Ikedi Ohakim and the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, Rochas Okorocha, are currently tied.
The supervising REC, Aniedi Abasi Ikoiwak, gave the assurance in an interview with journalists yesterday in Owerri, the state capital. One of the commissioners, Mike Iginni, warned that attempting to snatch ballot materials would be suicidal because of the high number of security personnel that would be detailed to each polling unit.
“It would be likened to a man that stole the crown of a king; where would such a person wear the crown? In essence, we are saying that any result not produced from a polling unit cannot be accepted, and I must state that the courier of such results risks arrest and prosecution.”
Mr Ikoiwak noted that in view of INEC’s insistence on discipline and best ethical practices, four INEC officials indicted in complicity in electoral malpractices were immediately suspended on the arrival of the new team of INEC umpires to Imo State.
However, against the 6,500 police officers deployed in the April 26 governorship elections in the state, the police have deployed over 10,000 police officers for today’s “supplementary elections” in four council areas and a ward in Imo state.
Addressing journalists in Owerri, Deputy Inspector General of Police Ivy Okoronkwo, who heads the police team to the state, said the police was committed to ensuring a hitch-free exercise where no voter would be unduly disenfranchised and no individual or group would be allowed to subvert the will of the people expressed through the ballot.
Mrs Okoronkwo added that other security agencies would also provide personnel to complement the efforts of the police while each polling unit would be adequately manned with vehicular patrol covering all areas where elections would hold.
However, expectations are high in the camp of the opposition front runner, the APGA. In a telephone chat with the party’s spokesperson, Chioma Ogoke, she said that the party was giving INEC the benefit of doubt.
“Given the assurances of the new team of RECs for the election, I can confidently tell you that APGA is going to overrun the four council areas in question to convey to the larger society the level of support and goodwill being enjoyed by our governorship candidate, Rochas Okorocha.”
Commenting on the curfew declared by the state government, Mrs Ogoke claimed that the curfew was ill-intentioned but ‘with the crop of credible umpires and assurances we have so far received the essence of the curfew would be defeated.’ Eze Duruiheoma, the state Peoples Democratic Party chairman, said that the PDP “has always been known as an election winning machine with operational structures to that effect. This election will not be an exception. We have campaigned more vigorously than any party in this state, sold our candidate and manifesto to the electorate. We are therefore hopeful of victory at the end of the day.”
Mr Duruiheoma defended the curfew, however, saying, “The curfew is a product of sound security advice and was not declared to massage anybody’s ego or serve some personal political interest as being alleged by the opposition.”
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