Orlu Political Action Committee, OPAC, on Thursday, demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should outrightly cancel the Ngor Okpala bye-election within forty-eight hours.
The socio-political group said failure to do this would be an invitation to mass outrage.
In a statement released in Owerri, by the group’s Publicity Secretary, Barr. Nnamdi Maduka, he said President Muhammadu Buhari should call Hope Uzodinma to order.
OPAC said, “the impression Imo people get is that all the atrocities of Hope Uzodinma in Imo State go unpunished because of the cover which he gets from Aso Rock.
“The President owes Imo people a duty to stop Uzodinma from destroying democracy in the State. President Buhari must, therefore, demonstrate that he never endorsed the unacceptable electoral fraud which Uzodinma and his agents carried out in Ngor Okpala.
“We call on the Inspector General of Police to immediately arrest and prosecute all the agents, cronies, allies and henchmen of Uzodinma and chieftains of the APC who were caught in the very shameful abductions, shootings, mayhem and electoral fraud that marred the Ngor Okpala bye-election.
“As an immediate step to remedy the situation, we demand that INEC should outrightly cancel the Ngor Okpala bye-election within forty-eight hours. Failure to do this will be an invitation to mass outrage and overwhelming action by the people of Imo State.”
“A state constituency by-election that was supposed to be seamless, peaceful, credible, transparent and hitch-free was then reduced to total warfare. Ballot boxes were wantonly snatched away by APC chieftains, aided by truckloads of security operatives and militiamen, ad hoc officials of INEC were massively kidnapped and results written at private residences of Uzodinma’s agents and in hotel rooms too. This is an anomie of indescribable proportion.
“Imo people woke up to yet another attack on our cherished democratic values on February 26, 2022, when Hope Uzodinma unleashed his appointees and loyalists with armed men on Ngor Okpala to perpetrate mind-boggling electoral fraud,” he claimed.
The group said they were deeply troubled by the orgy of violence and electoral fraud in Ngor Okpala
OPAC said it firmly believed that if that travesty was allowed to stand, the far-reaching implications would be costly and unhealthy for democracy in Nigeria at large.
