On Tuesday, the residents of Orlu/Orsu/Oru East Federal Constituency in Imo State staged a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Owerri. They were expressing their outrage over the declaration of Canice Nwachukwu from the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the recent election in their federal constituency. The protesters, who carried placards, asserted that no election had taken place in the area due to the ongoing insecurity that has plagued the region.
The demonstrators explained that they had been waiting for INEC officials to arrive on election day, but none showed up. They were taken aback to learn the following day that Nwachukwu had been announced as the election winner. The protesters urged INEC to refrain from creating chaos in the community by fabricating results to support the declaration of a candidate for an election that never occurred.
One of the protesters, Ozoemena Agbaka, shared his experience with journalists, stating that he waited at his polling unit until 6 PM on Saturday without seeing any INEC staff. He emphasized, “We waited till 6 PM without any INEC staff in sight. No election was held, and there was no explanation. The election was not rescheduled. To our dismay, somebody has been declared the winner of an election that was never held. INEC should not cause trouble in this country. They should fix a date for our election. We want to vote.”
Another protester, Juliet Chibueze, expressed her frustration regarding the electoral body’s decision to declare a candidate as the winner of a non-existent election. She stated, “We hear that INEC has declared somebody a winner of an election that didn’t hold in our federal constituency. We are here to register our dismay. In the interest of justice, INEC should fix a date for an election in our federal constituency. We want to vote. You can’t declare somebody the winner of an election that never held. This is a constitutional democracy, for crying out loud,” she lamented.
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