LP and PDP Walk out of INEC stakeholders meetingIn Imo State, a significant incident occurred during a stakeholders’ meeting organized by INEC on Tuesday.
This meeting aimed to facilitate pre-election discussions with various stakeholders, including the governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), namely Senators Samuel Anyanwu and Athan Achonu, respectively.
The main issue of contention was the demand for the redeployment of the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Sylva Agu.
The meeting, which took place in Owerri, initially faced disruption when INEC’s National Commissioner, Kenneth Ukeagu, representing Yakubu, ordered journalists to stop recording and leave the hall after his opening remarks. This directive was met with opposition from LP’s deputy governorship candidate, Mr. Tony Nwulu, and PDP’s representative, Jones Onyereri, who argued that the press, as critical stakeholders, should not be excluded from the meeting.
Tensions escalated during the meeting, with accusations of plans to rig the election in favor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the display of alleged fake result sheets posted on the INEC portal during a previous election. The situation became rowdy, with supporters of both ruling and opposition parties engaging in heated exchanges, nearly resulting in physical altercations.After about 20 minutes, order was restored, but another altercation ensued when an APC chieftain, Macron Nlemigbo, directed abusive remarks at the state chairman of LP.
This prompted Nwulu, Onyereri, and their supporters to walk out of the meeting.Onyereri stated that they left because they had lost confidence in the INEC commissioner’s neutrality, while Nwulu expressed their distrust in the REC’s ability to conduct a fair election.The state chairman of LP, Callistus Ihejiakwa, criticized Ukeagu for failing to maintain control of the meeting and expressed concerns about threats made to his life by an APC chieftain in the hall, without appropriate intervention.