The Imo State governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the March 23 gubernatorial election, Uche Nwosu, has disclosed that dead people were among those that voted in the three Local Government Areas of Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte Ahiazu in the governorship election.
In an interview with The Nation Newspaper, Nwosu stated that forensic investigation carried out on the ballot papers used in the March 23 governorship election revealed that hundreds of dead people were among those that voted for the declared winner of the election and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Emeka Ihedioha, in three aforementioned Council Areas.
The AA candidate, who was granted leave by the Governorship Election Tribunal to inspect the electoral materials, described the findings as shocking and unbelievable.
He disclosed further that what was declared as the final result of the governorship election by the Returning Officer, Prof. Francis Otunta, did not in any way reflect the actual figure as uncovered during the scrutiny of the voting materials and the Card Readers used during the election.
According to him, “it was shocking to discover that dead persons were among those that voted for the PDP candidate, Emeka Ihedioha in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Local Government Areas, where he got unimaginable figures. After the election and the results announced, I made it clear to my supporters that there was no election in Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu and Ezinihitte. I told them that my results were changed in favour of Ihedioha. After we got Certified True Copies of the election materials, to our greatest surprise, we discovered that hundreds of dead people voted for Ihedioha. We have people who came to tell us that the names of their relations that died long ago were in the list of registered voters and they actually voted.
“We also discovered to our utmost dismay that what the Returning Officer, Prof. Francis Otunta declared was totally different from the total number of registered voters that the Card Reader recorded, especially in those three Local Government Areas. “I have never seen this high level of manipulation and electoral fraud, but I have high hopes in the judiciary and that’s why we are relying on the Tribunal to get justice”.
Nwosu, who said that there were actual voting in the areas where he won, challenged anybody to come out with prove to the contrary.
In his words, “there was credible election in the areas where I won. People voted and the figures were justified. I challenge anybody to go and check the results of the local government areas where I won, unlike the three local government areas aforementioned”.
