Labour Party Governorship candidate, Imo State, Senator Athan Achonu, has vowed to expose the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) misconduct in the IMO state governorship election, stating that he is going to war, calling on all aggrieved Nigerians to join him.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday night, Achonu promised to pursue the Imo state governorship tribunal to Supreme Court after the Imo State Election Petition Tribunal ruled against him.
He said that his expectations for the Imo state election petition tribunal was low when he saw that it was the same judge from Kano tribunal also presiding over his case.
Achonu expressed himself saying, “We expected that, being that the same person that presided over the Kano’s tribunal was the same person they sent to us. But I had hopes because she’s a woman. So when my campaign was complaining, I said that she is a woman maybe something will touch her heart.”
The case of “forgery” Is so obvious, he said, as he explained the corrupt practices he saw during the Imo state governorship election, highlighting the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine as a major factor.
He said, “They asked the APC witness what they used for accreditation in the election and he said they used the BVAS report. You have a BVAS report that says that accreditation is 520,000, you have a winner with 540,000 and total vote casted in that election is like 700,000.”
“The electoral Empire is INEC, so any document INEC gives us, we follow. INEC gave their beavers reports, “ he added.
Further stating his case, he explained that the witnesses brought to court proved him right and the BVAS corroborated their evidence.
“The 43 witnesses we had proved our case in court and the BVAS report was corroborated with evidence and nobody challenged it, so how did you (INEC) arrive at that judgement? We are going to appeal the judgement. We have to expose INEC. INEC must be made to pay.”
Achonu revealed that this was not his first time experiencing corruption during the electoral process.
He explained, “When I ran for senate, a party’s logo was not out and it was cancelled. Another election took place. I had previously won with 10,000 but this time I won with 12,000. When I went to collect the result, the then governor surrounded me with over 200 thugs and they said I will not leave with that result alive. They refused to give me my result.”
Achonu made various allegations against INEC, highlighting that the event that occurred was “ a rape of democracy”.
He accused INEC of “refusing to come and identify which of the results was true even after the court ordered it. I went to Umuahia to beg the admin secretary who signed my result, I knelt down and he said he is no longer a staff of INEC, that he’s retired and cannot come to court on behalf of INEC.
He added that in one of the previous elections in Imo state, they also forged the result but unfortunately it was exposed.
He revealed, “The same man from APC in the Senate election forged the result in the subsequent election, because the PDP candidate then beat him. But he was caught. INEC had introduced water mark in the result sheet but he didn’t know and forged it using the old one. There was an internal investigation and he was caught but it was not made public.”
Achonu stated that the reason he was “put” in third place was that “incase there is a re-run, they (APC) will trash PDP, but they didn’t know we will not allow them to infiltrate the BVAS machine.”
He also alleged that “INEC did not honour the access to records given by the court tribunal.”
He appealed to Tinubu to do something because he is in charge and is aware.
Achonu expressed that he is not in it for”personal gain but for the development of Imo state.”
Nancy Mbamalu
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