Review Imo election over irregularities – Int’l observers task INEC

Pan African Women Projects, an international election monitoring group, has requested that INEC investigate “irregularities in result tallying as shown in the portal” in the governor’s race in Imo State.

The Head of Mission for Pan African Women Projects, Dr. (Mrs.) Eno UDENSI, said at a press conference on Wednesday in Owerri that elections were not held in many voting units across the state.

The group voiced its dismay at the violence that occurred during the conduct of the governorship election in the state and urged the new leadership of the Nigeria Police Force to address the ambiguous security issues that arose during the election.

They reported, “At this election, we saw discrepancies in the tallied results as shown in the portal. There were some precincts where voting was skipped. Our situation room requested film of these units from our field observers after receiving these reports.

According to the report, “the elections in Imo State were conducted at variance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, but we are hopeful that the Electoral Commission will pay attention to these irregularities and consider our recommendations and suggestions in our report for subsequent credibility in future elections to be conducted.”

INEC’s implementation of the BVAS represents a watershed moment for Nigeria’s electoral system. It’s not perfect, though. What INEC has to focus on is the rate at which BVAS processes information and the difficulties associated with network connectivity.

“This election featured major occurrences of conflict in various Local Government Areas in Imo State. Only incidents spotted by our observation team on November 11th, 2023 in Imo state will be discussed and reported by our organization.

The activities of security agencies during this election should be reviewed. Through this platform, we urge the new leadership of the Nigerian Police Force to call a stakeholder meeting with representatives of political parties, INEC, observers, and the media to discuss the election’s security shortcomings and plan for improvements in future elections in Nigeria.

There was a terrifying scene waiting for us at the polling stations in Attah High School, Ikeduru. The PO was shocked to learn that armed men had broken into voting places and stolen supplies and abducted a man called Emmanuel Ihenachio Ezirim, causing great distress to his young wife and child.

We returned all the Ad hoc workers from the voting places to the Local Government Area INEC headquarters, however the police officer who had reportedly fled into the woods with some voters was never located.

Our observers in the LGA said that “at Oru East, there were incidents of ballot box snatching.” Units 017 Capino Secondary School, Umuhu, Omuma, Unit 020 Ogbo-Ewu market square, Unit 032 Oil Mill, Unit 037 Amajaraogu Square, Unit 036 Umuihihioke, Units 042,043,045 Umunwanzu Square, and Unit 040 Ama Ofuokwu Owerri. The Municipality of C. OWERRI
During the election, voting boxes were stolen and voters were threatened in room 022 of Market Square on Orlu Road.

The vote box and other election materials were stolen by armed criminals from the Oru West unit 011 in ward 1. We saw a low turnout of voters across the State at this election as compared to past elections we witnessed. Even by 12:30pm, the number of voters at many of the voting places we visited was small.