The detention of two Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials in Imo State has triggered a war of words between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Our correspondent gathered that both parties had made their stand with the PDP alleging the illegal detention of two INEC officials, identified as Chidiebere Eze and Felix Agu, while the ruling APC claimed it knew nothing about same.
The state chapter of the PDP in a statement signed by the spokesperson, Collins Opuruozor, had accused the state governor, Hope Uzodimma, of using his office to intimidate staff of the electoral body in his bid to manipulate next year’s election.
In his reaction, the Imo APC through the publicity secretary, Cajetan Duke, stressed that the PDP in the state had resorted to “petty propaganda and checkered blackmail” just to discredit “the performing governor of Imo state.”
He stated that the allegation levelled against the government was nothing but baseless blackmail targeted at the governor.
The spokesperson said the governor was not holding down any staff from INEC.
His words: “This allegation is baseless, petty, and cheap blackmail geared towards discrediting the performing Governor of Imo State. As a party, we are going round the state brandishing our achievements, but the PDP members are only interested in trying to talk ill of the governor. INEC is a federal institution. The governor is not clamping down on the electoral umpire.”
But, the PDP, which requested the immediate release of all INEC officials said the governor’s move to undermine all democratic institutions had persisted and if not checked, can truncate democracy in the state.
The Imo PDP also called on the people of the state to rise up and join forces to defend its democracy and defeat the anti-democratic forces that are working relentlessly to keep the masses in perpetual bondage.
The state’s PDP, therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police to caution his men because they are used to perpetuate such acts, adding that the government has no right to detain staff of a federal body like INEC.
According to the statement, the officials were arrested, prosecuted, and detained on the accusation of official misconduct that INEC, till this moment, has said is unknown to the commission.
The statement stated that “Hope Uzodimma’s administration is working to intimidate and cow the electoral umpire, so as to yield to the desperate plot by the alleged failed All Progressives Congress to rig the 2023 elections in the state.
“Our party, therefore, demands that all INEC officials being held in various detention facilities across the state and ruthlessly tortured on the orders of the appointees and agents of the infamous APC in the state be unconditionally released without any further delay.
“Our party urges the Imo people to rise to the occasion and defend democracy and defeat the anti-democratic forces that are working relentlessly to keep the masses in perpetual bondage.
“What must be noted by Imo people and Nigerians at large is that the effrontery and sinister attempts by the Uzodinma-led jittery regime in Imo to desecrate and undermine all democratic institutions have continued to increase. If this ugly tendency is left unchecked, Nigeria’s democracy may soon be truncated through the machinations of this anti-people junta in Imo State.
“Imo PDP contends that Senator Hope Uzodinma or his chaotic government has no right whatsoever to arrest, detain, or conduct any trial in a magistrate court of any staff of INEC, a federal establishment, on accusation of any official misconduct that INEC, till this moment, has said is unknown to it.
“It is therefore shocking that while INEC is making moves to clean up the register and punish those involved in the fraud, the APC regime in Imo State is fighting hard to incarcerate and crush those suspected to have courageously exposed the fraud. This is highly outrageous!
“The Inspector General of Police must step into this matter very quickly to caution and restrain his men, who are now obviously in bed with the dysfunctional APC government in Imo State and whose actions are becoming inimical to democratic consolidation in Nigeria.”
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