Imo LP candidate raises alarm, accuses INEC of impeding party’s efforts to inspect BVAS.

After the 19-day Imo State governorship election, Senator Athan Achononu of the Labour Party (LP) has made grave accusations against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Senator Achononu made a shocking discovery in a statement when he accused INEC of preventing him from accessing electoral papers that were essential to his case at the Governorship electoral Petitions Tribunal.

Despite a court ruling, the LP candidate voiced anger at INEC’s unwillingness to permit the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (B-VAS) to be inspected.

He said that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) planned the action as a calculated delay tactic to impede the filing of his case, perhaps resulting in its dismissal on procedural grounds.

Senator Achononu demanded that INEC maintain electoral openness, and that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu enforce this demand.

In his own words: “Right now, we went to the Tribunal and obtained an order allowing us to inspect the BVAS. Up till now, INEC has refused to allow us to inspect the BVAS.

“Despite a court order, they are not allowing us to inspect it; lawyers and experts were hired at an extremely high cost per day—N30 million.”

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Senator Achononu reported that the INEC Chairman had promised that wards would be the first to receive election results before the state, but he regretted that no ward had ever seen ward collation. This was during the stakeholders’ meeting.

Even as party representatives expressed doubts about the veracity of the results, he charged INEC of conspiring with the state’s ruling party to declare unsigned results.

“We informed INEC chairman Prof. Mahmoud at the stakeholders meeting that he needed to implement a few measures to ensure a seamless election.

“The first is the REC’s elimination. Second, before collation happens at the state level, it needs to happen at the ward and local government levels.

He agreed when we asked that three officers sign the result sheets: a national commissioner, the REC, and each EO representing his local government. This ensures that the result sheets are not manipulated.

Surprisingly, though, there was no ward-level collation on election day in several local governments. Everything was transferred to the state, and in the areas without elections and with high levels of insecurity, results were tallied and cluster voting took place in Orsu, regretted Achononu.

All hope is not lost, the LP candidate said, expressing a sliver of hope that he will receive justice from the legal system.