Crisis today rocked a stakeholders’ meeting called in Owerri by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Saturday’s governorship polls in Imo State.
Things went downhill immediately INEC’s National Commissioner representing South East, Kenneth Ukeagu, who is representing the National Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, ordered journalists to shut their cameras and gadgets after he had declared the interactive session opened.
However, voices of protest to the order came from members of the opposition political parties led by the running mates of the Labour Party governorship candidate, Tony Nwulu and that of the People’s Democratic Party, Jones Onyereri.
As a result, the session turned rowdy with supporters of both the ruling and opposition parties cursing each other.
Harsh words soon gave way to fisticuffs.
Nwulu and Onyereri said that the instruction to the media by the INEC’s Chairman’s representative confirmed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had perfected arrangements with the electoral officers to rig the election.
Nwulu specifically said that there was no way the media would be shut out of the stakeholders’ meeting.
He asked Ukeagu if the meeting was “a secret cult” and said that it was a plan by INEC to rig the election in favour of the APC.
The PDP governorship candidate’s Running Mate, Onyereri supported Nwulu and displayed copies of documents he described as fake results sheets posted on the INEC’s portal during the House of Assembly election in the state.
Tuesday’s meeting was part of INEC’s interactions with the governorship candidates, security agencies, the media, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders ahead of the November 11 poll. The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu was represented by the National Commissioner representing South-east, Kenneth Ukeagu.