*Imo North 2023: The truth and the miscarriage of justice...*

We have received with dismay, the miscarriage of justice which emanated from the Imo State Election Petitions Tribunal which has been sitting in Nasarawa state in the case of Chief Emmanuel Okewulonu (Ikeoha) PDP vs Hon. Patrick Ndubueze (APC) regarding the Imo North Senatorial election which took place on February 25, 2023.

We don't want to bore you with the truth you already know but it is important to give you a picture of the electoral fraud perpetrated by APC in Okigwe LGA, the LGA of the APC candidate.

Imo North is made up of six LGAs. Chief Emmanuel Okewulonu of PDP won in four LGAs - Obowo, Ihitte-Uboma, Ehime Mbano and Onuimo. He came second in Isiala-Mbano where Labour party came first. In the sixth LGA, Okigwe, the LGA of Hon. Patrick Ndubueze of APC, elections did not hold in seven of the eleven wards due to insecurity. The Imo REC was even captured on video saying that she will not be sending INEC officials to the seven wards where security was not guaranteed. The Director of NYSC also instructed that Corpers should not be released to work as INEC adhoc staff in those areas for security reasons. So, INEC conducted elections only in four wards.

CTC copy of INEC BVAS backend server report showed election and accreditation took place in four wards of Okigwe LGA with a total accreditation of 2,730 voters out of 3,780 registered voters. More disturbing is the fact that Umualumoke ward, the electoral ward of the APC candidate recorded only 225 accredited voters.

The question everybody is asking is; where did the more than 40,000 votes INEC accepted from APC as having been garnered by the APC candidate in Okigwe LGA come from? Remember, the total number of accredited voters in the entire Okigwe LGA as recorded by BVAS was 2,730.

With pressure from Douglas House, INEC which never conducted elections in the seven wards in question, accepted the results, collated it and declared the APC candidate as winner of the Imo North Senatorial election. We are not surprised because since 2019, Imo state has become a place where people who come last in elections suddenly "Ben Johnson" their way to the top.

We sought justice from the Imo State Election Petitions Tribunal. But unfortunately, justice was not served.

We want to thank all the people who gave Ikeoha their votes and stood by him while he sought to retrieve his mandate especially the youths, men and women and the widows who he celebrates every 26th of December. We also thank the leadership and members of PDP who entrusted him with the Senatorial ticket. May God bless you all.

As God pleases...

Eze Anyanwu
DG, Ikeoha New Media Center
7th September, 2023