By Ugonne Uzoma
The Governorship Candidate of PDP in Saturday’s election in Imo, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, has formally reacted to the outcome of the poll, saying it is unacceptable to him.
Anyanwu spoke through a statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organisation, Mr Ikenna Onuoha, and made available to newsmen in Owerri on Tuesday.
He described INEC’s declaration of Gov. Hope Uzodimma of APC as the winner of the poll as “unacceptable”.
Anyanwu alleged that the election was hijacked by thugs and urged INEC to cancel the election.
He discredited the results announced by the electoral umpire, saying that they were obtained from areas where elections were not scheduled to take place.
The PDP governorship hopeful advised INEC to redeem its image by reviewing the exercise or cancelling the election within seven days
“Imo people should be bothered that INEC generated election results from areas it had earlier announced that election would not hold due to insecurity,” the statement added.
It threatened that the PDP governorship candidate might be compelled to seek redress in Court, should INEC fail “to either review the election or cancel it entirely within seven days.
“INEC is advised not to allow itself to be viewed as a willing tool to destabilise Nigeria’s democracy,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, Anyanwu has denied the allegation in some quarters that he collected N2.5 billion from party leaders and financiers to induce voters to vote for the party in the election.
He was reacting to the “rumour that he disbursed only ten per cent of the funds”.
According to the statement, Anyanwu described the allegation as “blackmail from mischief makers and a vile attempt to malign his character”.
It stated that the party did not subscribe to thuggery, vote buying and other electoral misconducts.
“This allegation is not only misleading, ridiculous and mischievious but a big hoax.
“It is pure blackmail from mischief makers with no iota of truth in it.
“It is preposterous and utterly absurd for a sane person to allow himself to be used as a tool to malign his fellow humanbeing simply to pursue a vile and irrelevant motive.
“That the PDP refused to be part of vote buying, thuggery and rigging, which is at variance with the Electoral Act, should not give anyone the temerity to propagate falsehood in order to score cheap political relevance,” the statement added. (NAN)
