Imo women protest, accuse police, army of electoral fraud

The women, who equally barricaded the 34 artillery Brigade, Obinze, accused the police and military of assisting politicians in the state to perpetrate electoral fraud during the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. One of the leaders of the protest, Mrs Oby Ihejiagwa, accused the state governor, Rochas Okorocha, of using security agents to intimidate voters during the polls. Ihejiagwa specifically accused the governor of using security agents to rewrite the results of the election, which produced him as senator-elect. A petition addressed to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Francis Ezeonu, by the group of protesting women, read: “The governor used his powers and collaborated with some electoral workers, whom he bought over with huge amounts of money to perpetrate fraud, especially in Imo West Senatorial District. “Governor Rochas Okorocha subverted the use of card readers through intimidation by security agents and unknown miscreants to take some electoral materials to his residence in Ideato, where results were doctored in his favour.” The protesting women, called on the Brigadier Commander, 34 Artillery Brigade in Obinze to warn his men against allegedly aiding politicians in committing electoral fraud. They equally called on the Commissioner of Police in the state, Dasuki Galadanchi, to restrain his men from allegedly assisting politicians to upturn electoral results. But Galadanchi said that his men conducted themselves in a professional manner during the polls. The police boss said that under his supervision, officers in the state did not take sides before, during and after the elections. In his remarks, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okorocha, Sam Onwuemeodo, said they (women) were working for one of the candidates, who failed during the senatorial election. Meanwhile, a former governor of the state and candidate of the Accord Party in the March 9, 2019 governorship election, Ikedi Ohakim, has accused Okorocha of “technically” destroying the economy of Imo State. Okahim, who spoke at a function in Owerri, where he was adopted as the consensus candidate by the Imo State Elders Advisory Council, said that he had decided to put his “life on the line” in order to restore the state’s battered economy. He said, “The economy of Imo State has been technically destroyed. I overcame greed 30 years ago and I am better positioned to rescue the economy of Imo State. “Today, the local government system in Imo State is dead. There is no infrastructure. Our civil service system has been ‘hijacked’ and there is no job for our youths and fresh graduates. “For these wrongs, I have decided to put my life on the line for Imo State.”]]>