We’ll retrieve our stolen mandate in court – IMHA former deputy speaker

The former Deputy Speaker and House of Assembly candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for Mbaitoli State Constituency, Rt. Hon. Okey Onyekanma on Monday said his reviewing the overwhelming evidences at his disposal and will reclaim the mandate entrusted him by his constituents.

He said the majority of Mbaitoli electorates preferred him and showed it on the ballot but those who were afraid that they would fail in a free and fair election created violence in a bid to rig the election.

Onyekanma stated this in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media & Public Affairs Justice Chukwunatu Nwafor, made available to Track news in Owerri, Imo State.

Recall that Track news had earlier reported that twenty-six candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Imo State House of Assembly election have been declared winners by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC

The former Deputy Speaker, in a swift reaction said: “In some wards like Afara/Eziama, the home of the APC candidate, manual voting was allowed in some polling units in brazen violation of the Electoral Act giving room for scores above 600 votes.

“In many places where there were obvious cases of over voting, results were manually fabricated, entered on the result sheet, and collated as against the content of BVAS.

“Election materials and INEC Adhoc staff were forcefully carted away from polling units in some communities like Umunoha, Umueze, Okwu Ogbaku, Umutaku Ifakala, Obazu Mbieri, Amaukwu Orodo etc, by security personnel, especially the officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and fabricated results were later collated and uploaded.”

While thanking the people of Mbaitoli at his Eziome Mbieri country home for coming out to cast their votes in defiance of the intimidation and harassment of compromised military and police personnel, Onyekanma alleged that in most cases, his agents, supporters, and non-partisan constituents were assaulted, arrested and their vehicles, vandalized