The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday virtually accused Imo Governor, Rochas Okorocha of importing fake Election Observers to Anambra State. The National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega made this known while addressing a news conference in Abuja.
About 48hrs to the Anambra Governorship election, the Imo State Police Command had arrested 181 persons suspected to be fake election observers going to Anambra State for the Governorship election held on Saturday, 16 November 2013.
Commenting , on the arrest of some APC members who claimed to be observers for the polls, Jega said, “We were very strict as we accredited only those who applied within the time frame. In previous elections we were very thorough as we had to ask for the photographs of the applicants. For the Anambra State election, given the complaints we had received we insisted that the would-be monitors must be in Awka to get their accreditation.
“We even arrested somebody that was trying to impersonate another person. He is with the police and would soon be prosecuted. It was that thorough and the accreditation that we did aided the arrest of fake observers from Osun State.”
According to Jega, the Osun State delegation of observers forged their documents. “They did not come to Awka to collect their accreditation; rather they camped in Owerri. Some of them have been arraigned before a Magistrate Court” he said.
He accused the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, of Imo State of attempting to take over the prosecution of these people.
Elombah.com learnt that Gov Rochas Okorocha acting for ACN chieftains in Lagos has already arranged bail for the fake observers.
Parading the suspects at the police command headquarters in Owerri, the state capital, last week the Commissioner of Police, Mr Mohammed Katsina said the suspects were arrested at Disney Hotel along Onitsha in Owerri after getting an intelligence report from strategic partners that there are some strange faces that entered the state in large number.
Mr Katsina said preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects who claim to be INEC accredited election observers of Equity and Justice Organisation all came in from Osun state but had to rest in Imo state before moving to Anambra state for the election on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the leader of the group, Mr Waheed Lawal claimed during interrogations that “INEC accredited their organization to observe elections in 13 local government areas in Anambra state”.
Items recovered from the group are 2 pump action guns, valid voter’s registration card of an Anambra indigene and 181 identity cards of Equity and Justice Election Observer Organization.
The arrest of the fake observers in Owerri, the Imo State capital, had generated diverse reactions in the polity as major players in the Anambra State governorship election exchanged brickbats, allegations and counter-accusations.
While the Imo State police command insisted the arrested 180 persons in Owerri with “voter cards, INEC Identity Cards and Independent Observer Identity Cards were thugs having in their possession ”two pump-action rifles, live ammunition, 15 buses and other incriminating materials”, a statement signed by the Osun State Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the APC, Kunle Oyatomi, contended that the young men arrested were members of the Justice and Equity Organisation, duly accredited by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) as observers in the governorship election in Anambra State.
Oyatomi said that what was found on the arrested young men were not voter cards but INEC’s identification tags as observers of the election; and that the exhibits displayed to reporters by the police showed only the ribbons holding the observers’ tags, and not voter cards.
He also described as untrue the allegation that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was funding the electioneering activities of the APC governorship candidate in the Anambra gubernatorial election, Dr. Chris Ngige, saying “It is important to find proof from the accusers. People hallucinating cannot just engage a serious-minded political party on trivial issues.”
He explained further: “The young men were not found with APC ID Cards. Imo police command was being mischievous by claiming that the youths were APC thugs on their way to disrupt the governorship election.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also joined the fray, insisting that the APC flooded Anambra State with over 4,000 thugs, and that the 180 youths arrested were just a fraction of those already sent to the state.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said the arrest of 180 heavily armed political thugs from APC-controlled Imo State ready to be deployed to Anambra, had exposed the APC’s plot to cause mayhem and unleash violence during the election.
Daily Independent
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