Imo Guber: Ararume Heads to Tribunal, Wants Nullification of Ihedioha’s Victory

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Wednesday, April 10th, 2019

From Ignatius Okpara, Owerri

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The gubernatorial candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the last general election in Imo State, south east Nigeria, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, has approached the state Election Petition Tribunal, asking for an order to void the Certificate of Return issued to Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as the governor-elect.

He equally urged the tribunal to nullify and set aside the governorship election held in the state last month, on the ground that the election was invalid and non-compliant with the provision of the Electoral Act 2010 and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Ararume who defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to the opposition crisis ridden APGA joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP as respondents in his petition.

In his petition with reference number: IM/EPT/GOV/03/2019 filed on his behalf by Ahmed Raji (SAN); K.C Nwufo (SAN); I. K Bawa (SAN) and others, the petitioner also asked for an order directing the INEC to conduct a fresh gubernatorial election in Imo state, in compliance with the provision of the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.

He alleged that all the scores and purported votes from Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu Mbaise, Ehime Mbano and other 17 council areas of the states, were void and unlawful votes.

In giving ‘facts’ to support his claims, Araraume added that INEC, in preparation for the election, had sourced electoral officers from University of Agriculture, Umudike.

He further alleged that the said electoral officers were changed without reason hours to the election and replaced with a different set of untrained electoral officers and ad-hoc staff.

The petitioner who once represented Okigwe senatorial district of Imo state at the upper chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly NASS, argued that the new, untrained electoral officers and ad-hoc staff, most of who hail from Mbaise council areas were then appointed and deployed within hours to the commencement of the governorship election.

According to him, “These untrained electoral staff did not subscribe to the oath of neutrality.

The APGA governorship flag bearer, also averred in his petition that there was massive hijacking and diversion of ballot papers and other electoral material to places other than polling units where several booklets of ballot papers were “massively thumb printed’’ by agents of the PDP in favour of Ihedohia in the aforementioned LGAs, coupled with ballot box snatching and stuffing with ballot papers.

He said that the multiple thumb-printed ballot papers for Ihedioha were subsequently stuffed into the ballot boxes and recorded in favour of the PDP and its candidate in the stated local government council areas.

The petitioner further averred that the agents of PDP and Ihedioha, acting on their instructions and authorisation, procured massive numbers of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and wrongfully used them on the Smart Card Readers – resulting in false record of accreditation on the Smart Card Readers, as shown by the serial and sustained fingerprint verification failure in the polling units.

Araraume stated that the consequences of the alleged corrupt practices allegedly perpetrated by PDP and its candidate, acting through their agents and surrogates, led to the purported victory of PDP and its candidate at the election.

He also pointed out that the PDP candidate did not win one-quarter of the votes cast at the said election in each of at least two-third of all the local government areas in the state, as required by section 179(2) and (3) of the 1999 constitution.

The APGA candidate said that he submitted the said result sheets as in Forms EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and EC8E to a specialist for his professional analysis.

He added that upon the said computation, he discovered that the PDP’s candidate did not secure one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-third of all the 27 council areas in the state, as required by the constitution.

Ararume pointed out that out of the 27 local government areas in the state, Ihedioha scored 25 per cent of total votes cast in 12 local government areas, thereby rendering his purported return invalid./