Crisis rocked the stakeholders meeting organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for this weekend’s Governorship election in Imo State.
The Herald gathered that the crisis started immediately after INEC’s National Commissioner representing South East, Kenneth Ukeagu, who is representing the National Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, ordered journalists to shut their cameras and gadgets after he had declared the interactive session opened.
Members of the opposition political parties led by the running mates of the Labour Party governorship candidate, Tony Nwulu and that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jones Onyereri, opposed the directives.
They said that the call by INEC’s Chairman was a confirmation that the All Progressives Congress had made arrangements with the electoral umpire to rig the election.
Nwulu specifically said that there was no way the media would be shut out of the stakeholders’ meeting.
He asked Ukeagu if the meeting was “a secret cult” and said that it was a plan by INEC to rig the election in favour of the APC.
The PDP governorship candidate’s running mate, Onyereri supported Nwulu and displayed copies of documents he described as fake results sheets posted on the INEC’s portal during the House of Assembly election in the state.