Barring any unforeseen circumstance, the supplementary poll
to determine the eventual winners of the inconclusive Okigwe re-run senatorial
election, as well as the State Assembly seats for Oru East and Isiala Mbano,
would now hold today.
Confirming this in
Owerri, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr. Nasir Ayilara, said that
the commission would do everything possible to go ahead with the exercise. With
today’s exercise and possible emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
candidate as the winner of the election, Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu may be in for the battle of his life. Only on Tuesday, APC governors
were reportedly to have met President Muhammadu Buhari to demand for the
removal of Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the
Deputy Senate President.
Before the governors’
meeting with Buhari, both APC chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Imo State
governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha had spoken of the necessity of replacing him
with an APC member with Okorocha saying that with the possibility of the Imo
candidate winning in the senatorial rerun, the days of Ekweremadu as Deputy
Senate President was numbered. Addressing journalists in Owerri, the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for the senatorial seat, Chief Athanatius
Achonu, who thanked the people for defying the rains to exercise their
legitimate franchise, however, frowned at the absence of collation officers at
the collation centres.
“I have the results
announced in the various polling units of the local government areas, which
showed that I was comfortably leading the All Progressives Congress, APC,
candidate. I urge INEC to do the needful by granting the wish of Okigwe
people”, Achonu pleaded. When contacted to respond to the allegation, the State
APC Deputy Chairman, Mr. Ugochukwu Nzekwe, described Nigerians as “bad losers”.
While agreeing that “the re-run election may not have been very perfect, even
as events have shown that Nigerians are very bad losers”, Nzekwe queried how
anybody would have expected APC to lose the crucial election.
“I won’t be surprised
if the APC candidate is finally declared the winner after the supplementary
election, especially as he is clearly ahead of his closest PDP rival, by 8,000
votes”, Nzekwe said. Shootings were reported at Okata and Amiri in Oru East,
while skirmishes and snatching of ballot boxes characterised the election in
some communities in Isiala Mbano area during the rerun last Saturday. Prof.
Arinze Agbogu, the INEC Returning Officer for Imo North Senatorial District who
announced the result on Sunday, however said that Mr Ben Uwajumogu, APC’s
senatorial candidate, polled 48,921.
Agbogu also announced
that PDP’s Athan Achonu scored 40,142 votes to emerge second in the already
declared result. He explained that results of several polling units in Isiala
Mbano area were characterised by irregularities leading to cancelation of the
results. Agbogu explained that the exercise was cancelled in 15 polling units
with a total of 13,000 registered voters. According to him, the difference
between the candidate with the highest score and the second stood at 8,777
votes
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