Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), has called for the arrest and prosecution of the Deputy Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Amarachi Iwuanyanwu alongside others.
The group said the arrest had become necessary following their alleged involvement in voter suppression, intimidation, and harassment during the State House of Assembly election held in the state on Saturday.
A statement by the coalition said the elections were largely marred by voter intimidation and harassment by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) across the state in its desperation to sweep the polls.
The statement which was signed by Dr. Chike Ogbonnaya, on behalf of the group, said that the election was largely flawed and compromised and that the results did not represent the will of the people.
It read: “We the members of 35 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) after duly observing the elections that took place in Imo state yesterday, for the State House of Assembly wish to state as follows:-
“The elections were largely marred by voter intimidation and harassment by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) across the state.
“In particular, the elections held in the three local government areas of Mbaise and other local government areas under Owerri senatorial zone, in general, were a complete charade. Imo State sponsored militia, thugs, and compromised security officials supplanted the wishes of the people by manipulating the election results with brazen impunity.
“In Orlu senatorial zone, in one of the highly publicised cases that even went viral on social media, the Deputy Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Amarachi Iwuanyanwu, in a gangster fashion was seen in a motor convoy moving from one polling unit to another intimidating voters and manipulating election results. This is against the security directives issued by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) strictly restricting vehicular movements on election day in Nigeria.
“We also noticed that in hundreds of polling units, many party agents of the main opposition parties like the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) were routinely chased away from polling units and in some cases, already authenticated election result sheets were snatched away from them with a view of re-writing the results to favour the ruling party in the state.
“Many Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff were intimidated to cooperate with the perpetrators of these acts of electoral fraud by threats to their lives.
“There were so many infractions on election day in Imo State too numerous to enumerate here.
“Our information is to the effect that these acts of unprecedented ”scientific rigging” are signposts to prepare the grounds for an APC ”Landslide victory” in the forthcoming governorship elections on November 11, 2023, against the wishes of the people of the state.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should cancel immediately the results of the elections in state constituencies where there were major acts of vote rigging, voter intimidation, suppression and violence that make it impossible for the manipulated declared results to represent the wishes of the people.”
The coalition urged the Inspector General of Police to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the culprits.
It also called on the media to beam their searchlight on those who conspired and collaborated to upturn the legitimate will of the people.
The statement further urged residents to remain resolute in the defense of their mandate by refusing to recognise the legitimacy of those who have stolen their mandate no matter how long it takes.
