The Peoples Democratic Party in Imo State has called for the immediate release of two detained staff members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Chidiebere Eze and Felix Agu.
A statement issued by the PDP spokesperson, Collins Opuruozor, said that Hope Uzodimma’s administration was allegedly working to “intimidate and cow the electoral umpire so as to yield to the desperate plot by the failed All Progressives Congress to rig the 2023 elections in the state.”
It partly read, “Our party, therefore, demands that all INEC officials being held in various detention facilities across the state and ruthlessly tortured on the orders of the appointees and agents of the infamous APC in the state be unconditionally released without any further delay.
“Our party urges the Imo people to rise to the occasion and defend democracy and defeat the anti-democratic forces that are working relentlessly to keep the masses in perpetual bondage.
“What must be noted by Imo people and Nigerians at large is that the effrontery and sinister attempts by the Uzodinma-led jittery regime in Imo to desecrate and undermine all democratic institutions have continued to increase. If this ugly tendency is left unchecked, Nigeria’s democracy may soon be truncated through the machinations of this anti-people junta in Imo State.
“Imo PDP contends that Senator Hope Uzodinma or his chaotic government has no right whatsoever to arrest, detain, or conduct any trial in a magistrate court for any staff of INEC, a federal establishment, on accusation of any official misconduct that INEC, till this moment, has said is unknown to it.
“It is therefore shocking that while INEC is making moves to clean up the register and punish those involved in the fraud, the APC regime in Imo State is fighting hard to incarcerate and crush those suspected to have courageously exposed the fraud. This is highly outrageous!
“The Inspector General of Police must step into this matter very quickly to caution and restrain his men, who are now obviously in bed with the dysfunctional APC government in Imo State and whose actions are becoming inimical to democratic consolidation in Nigeria.”
Reacting, the Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Cajetan Duke, said that the PDP in the state had resulted in “petty propaganda and checkered blackmail” just to discredit “the performing governor of Imo state.”
He said, “This allegation is baseless, petty, and cheap blackmail geared towards discrediting the performing Governor of Imo State. As a party, we are going around the state brandishing our achievements, but PDP members are only interested in trying to talk ill of the governor. INEC is a federal institution. The governor is not clamping down on the electoral umpire.
