By Joshua Chibuzo Andrew| Owerri
A coalition of Civil Society Groups has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to help end the bloodletting and violence in Imo state by conducting a free, fair and credible governorship election in the state on November 11, 2023.
The group also tasked the Commission to guard against the attempts by some unscrupulous elements in the state to harvest and write results in favour of a particular candidate in the election.
In a joint press conference held in Enugu, the Enugu state capital on Sunday, the groups including the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) and Southeast Based Coalition of Democracy and Human Rights Organization, said conducting credible election in Imo state would restore decency and sanctity if the ballot box and eventually have Imo voters and their properties secured and protected after years of agony.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Emeka Umeagbalasi who addressed the press conference said, “the restoration of the sanctity of the ballot box in Imo, is capable of ending the ongoing mass killings and destruction of properties that have ravaged the state since January 2021 leading to unlawful killings by drafted security forces ad armed non-state actors of combined total of over 2000 unarmed defenseless citizens and wanton destruction of more than 1, 600 civilian houses and tens of thousands of other non-military necessity properties.
Umeagbalasi lamented that available evidence and realities suggest that some persons do not want the INEC to organize an election that is free, fair and credible election.
He said that the eventual winner of the November 11 governorship election, if conducted freely will not score more than 90,000 to 130,000 votes out of a total lawful votes cast of not more than 300,000.
“We arrived at this projection after considering the fear, chaos, bloodletting that have enveloped the state since January 2021 in which more than half of the state’s 27LGAs are deeply affected.”
He said that the coalition had written letters to some critical stakeholders including the Inspector General of Police, the National Security Adviser, Chief of Army Staff, the Director General of State Security Service, Chief of Defense Staff and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, soliciting for adequate security during and after the election in the state.
He further called on various political parties in the state to insist that INEC must be impartial and non-partisan in posting of the EOs, AEOs and Supervisor ad their deployment to LGAs, wards and polling units.
He urged them to ensure that original results are duly tabulated ad entered on the polling units’ formEC8AS and duly signed by all the accredited party agents and designated security personnel and INEC accredited officials.
