independent Electoral Commission for declaring the state
gubernatorial election inconclusive and announcing
supplementary elections in some wards across the state.
Mr. Okorocha, who spoke to journalists at the Government
House in Imo State early Monday, said the supplementary
election would have been unnecessary if INEC had
considered the number of Permanent Voters Card
distributed in the affected areas instead of the number of
registered voters.
The INEC Returning Officer of the State, Ibidapo Obe,
announced that the election was inconclusive because the
margin (79,529) between the frontrunner, Mr. Okorocha and
his contender, Emeka Ihedioha of Peoples Democratic Party,
was less than the number of registered voters (144,715) in
wards across the state where elections did not hold or were
cancelled due to violence.
He said a new date would be announced for a
supplementary election.
Though Mr. Okorocha recognised the provision of the
electoral law in respect of the number of registered voters,
he said INEC should have considered distribution of PVC in
the affected areas instead of registered voters as only voters
with PVC can vote.
"The electoral act has talked about registered voters and in
the workings of that act and in the spirit of the law, you
cannot not make use of number of registered voters, you
have to make use of number of PVC collected.
"When you look at the number of PVC collected you find out
that there is no need for this supplementary election
because the number of PVC collected will be less than the
79,000 votes difference between me and the PDP candidate.
But now they are basing on the number of registered voters.
Number of registered voters do not cast the vote; it is the
number of PVC collected that does," he explained.
He, however, said he was ready to participate in the
supplementary election and in fact went ahead to claim
victory in the election.
"You can only change the date of a burial but you cannot
change the burial. From the results available, the fact speaks
for itself, we have won this election despite all the
irregularities," Mr. Okorocha with a contented smile.
Beaming with confidence, Mr. Okorocha said he was in fact
ready for the total re-run of the election if INEC deemed it
necessary and guaranteed that it would be conducted fairly.
He insisted that his contender cannot defeat him in a free
and fair election.
"Let me say that there is no basis for comparison when I'm
told that I'm in contest with the PDP candidate and he
scored some votes it is not true. I think I'm in contest with
more unseen elements than the candidate himself. If this
election is conducted in the way it should be conducted in a
free and fair manner, my opponent would have up to
100,000 votes. Never. Not in Imo State; not at all," he
boasted.
Mr. Okorocha said he would have won the election with a
landslide if his contender, abetted by men in security
uniform, had not perpetrated widespread electoral fraud.
"If you look at what has happened in his areas of jurisdiction
and his local government, Mbaise local government, Ahiazu,
Ezinnite, Aboh Mbaise, where he gave himself almost 80,000
votes. Can you imagine in Aboh Mbaise, you have 51,000
voters when the actual PVC collected is about 60,000 and in
Mbaitoli where you have over 100,000 PVC collected the
total votes there is about 30,000 so that tells you the
manipulation. What we saw in those areas was simply the
militarisation of the entire process – snatching of ballot
boxes and violence and what have you.
"But because of these manipulations and writing of results
and taking result sheets and going to somebody's house –
escorted by security agencies- to write the result and come
in the private car to INEC headquarters, that is why many
people think there is a contest. So I'm not in contest with
that gentle man, I'm in contest with the entire manipulation
of the system and the election," he said.
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