Oguta re-run election: Okorocha appeals to INEC to issue APGA candidate with certificate of return

The Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorcha has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue certificate of return to the APGA candidate in the just concluded re-run election for Oguta constituency, Mr Walter Uzonwanne who scored a total of 9,575 votes against the PDP candidate who scored 7,584 votes.

He made this appeal while briefing journalists at the Government House, Owerri  yesterday. According to him, the Oguta election which was declared inconclusive by the higher authorities of INEC at Abuja was certified conclusive by the INEC’s Returning Officer for the said election, Mrs Cynthia Oguike, who had signed the final results of the election and was about to pronounce the winner before a phone call came through to her line.

Speaking further at the briefing, Governor Okorocha recounted that the governorship election in Imo State in 2011 was declared inclusive in Oguta Local Government Area when the same ‘power from above ‘ intervened in a failed bid to ensure that he (Rochas Okorocha) did not win. He wondered why the chieftains of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are bent on winning every election at all costs, adding that such show of disregard for the rule of law is capable of truncating the nascent democracy in Nigeria. According to him, election in Oguta Local Government Area has been cancelled four times with two cases pending in court.

Said he, “ I am disappointed in the manner in which the PDP has handled the election in Oguta. First, the APGA candidate, Walter Uzonwanne was bundled into the police cell for three weeks on false allegation of complicity in a kidnap case masterminded by the PDP. He was released barely  one week to the election day. As if that is not enough, my convoy was attacked recently by the PDP candidate for the just concluded election in Oguta, Mr Eugene Dibiagwu and his thugs who took away a gun and a radio transmitter from one of my security men.”

Responding to questions from journalists at the event, Governor Okorocha called on INEC to maintain the credibility they have so far been known for and to desist from allowing the issue of Oguta election to spoil the good works they have done in the past.  He said the authorities of INEC, out of pressure from the PDP, had declared that the election was inconclusive in 8 polling booths, thereby trying to create an avenue for another supplementary election in the area.