George Onyejiuwa, Owerri

The Orlu zone leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted that its candidate in Imo West senatorial election, Jones Onyeriri, won the election.   This was just as they accused police and army personnel of colluding with Governor Rochas Okorocha to snatch ballot boxes, harass and intimidate voters during the polls across the 12 local government councils of the zone.   The state vice chairman and chairman of Orlu zone, Chief Alloy Igwe, who briefed the press at the weekend, said Onyeriri was the lawful winner of the election.   His words: “Onyeriri is the lawful winner of the senatorial election in Imo West. Allowing Okorocha to go free from this impunity will be a recipe for lawlessness and wrong signal to all those who believe in the rule of law and sanctity of electoral process in the country. Most worrisome is the manhandling of the Returning Officer, Prof. Innocent Ibeabuwchi, by Okorocha and his collaborators, forcing him under duress to declare him winner in the most barbaric and inhuman manner never witnessed before in our electoral process in Nigeria.

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“We urge the INEC to immediately invoke relevant provisions in its rule of engagement to disqualify Okorocha from the race.”

  On the alleged connivance between Okorocha, the military and police to unleash terror on the voters during the election, the party stated that “their undemocratic onslaught on members of the PDP generally led to the announcement of fake results, voter apathy, fear and lack of interest by voters in the democratic process.”