LP Candidate To Challenge Uzodimma’s Victory In Court

Athan Achonu, the Labour Party governorship candidate in Saturday’s governorship election in Imo State, has accused security agents of raping Nigeria’s democracy by allegedly aiding the All Progressives Congress to rig the election.

He described the actions of the military, police and other security agencies as “a rape of the country’s democracy”.

Addressing journalists on Sunday after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the governor of the state and candidate of the APC in the election, Hope Uzodimma the winner of the election, Achonu said the APC and its candidate were assisted by the police, military and other security agencies to rig the election.

Achonu announced that he would challenge Uzodimma’s victory in court.

He said, ” Yesterday, the security agencies of this country raped our democracy. It was a big shock, I just recovered from it this morning, the disappointment. The DSS (Department of State Services), the police, and the military raped our democracy. It was like a coup by the security agencies of this country, it wasn’t by INEC.“My party members were shouting INEC; plainly they were scared.

They said they brought people from different places in this country and when they came, they were willing to go to war. When you see the security agents that are supposed to protect people in a state when they behead people like chickens, doing the bidding of government, what do you do? You play ball or they kill you. In a state where they bomb their own citizens, where innocent people are falling like flies.

“Go to the mortuary of that state, thousands of dead bodies unclaimed. And you want somebody from Kano or somebody from South West who has never been here before and he sees the security agents doing the bidding of the APC government and you want that person not to sign whatever they asked them to sign?

“It’s not INEC, because there was nothing to expect from the removal of the REC. INEC listened to us, we are now watching the time the chairman will come and tell us why he didn’t stop the collation yesterday.

“Because you cannot have collation where what you have on the result sheet is different from what you have on your IReV and he told us, he told the whole country that this time BVAS will work and the BVAS we used for accreditation. 70% of the voting yesterday was done without BVAS accreditation yet results were announced.

“You know, I’ve told you people that this is just the beginning. After all, it was Supreme Court that made Uzodimma governor of Imo state. Since it is the culture now in Nigeria that if you want to be a governor, it is the court that will make you governor, if you want to be a president, it’s the court that will make you, so let’s see.

“I am calling on all the members of the Labour Party, do not be disillusioned. You are great people, you fought and a small party, an unknown party like Labour Party can come out and be what it is today in Nigeria and Imo State, Abia State, Enugu, everywhere, I mean it is kudos to you people. And the way you could see, how can an INEC person who saw how they manhandled the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, how I was surrounded, attacked, shot at, I mean, disobey any APC sole administrator or commissioner?

“These things were taken to commissioner’s houses writing results there, traditional rulers house writing results there. There was a cluster voting in Osu, they came out and lined up polling booths in one location. Two buses brought foreigners to come and claim that they voted. Why did they not accredit them if they are from Osu? And these things happened, you expect any INEC man not to obey them? This is crazy.

So, gentlemen of the press, I expect you to come and tell the whole world what you saw yesterday because most of you were even giving us reports of what you saw. In Orsu, they brought foreigners to vote. An ARISE TV reporter was beaten in a commissioner’s house. It is a rape on our democracy. We are going to court. The State Chairman of LP was brutalized.

“So Nigerians we need, this is a fight and I am calling on all INEC staff, all the staff who have something to say about what happened yesterday, who have any evidence to come out openly.

“Some have been calling me already since last night, one was in tears and sent me saying he couldn’t talk because they will kill him but last night I told him to stand up like a man and say what he saw and he did. He wrote it last night and forwarded it to me.

“So many other things, so many other incidents, so I am calling all Nigerians, all lovers of freedom to come and join the Labour Party, let us take that man out of Douglas House. He doesn’t deserve to stay there one night longer. This is a rape on democracy, I thank you all.”