The Young Progressives Party Campaign Group for a Nollywood Star, Emeka Ike, has called on Independent National Electoral Commission in Imo to declare the winner of Okigwe South Federal Constituency re-run election held March 9.
The state Chairman of YPP, Victor Diala, made the call in an interview with journalists in Owerri on Monday.
He claimed the party was leading at the just concluded Okigwe South Federal Constituency re-run held on March 9, adding that INEC should have allowed the will of the people to prevail by announcing Ike as the winner of the election.
He said: “Ike of YPP was leading with a good margin in the just concluded Okigwe South Federal Constituency election re-run.
“INEC should allow the will of the people to prevail. There was no need delaying the announcement of the result in an election someone was clearly leading.”
Diala condemned what he termed the unruly conduct of some miscreants in the last House of Representatives re-run election in the area, while applauding those who displayed sanity during the process.
He called on INEC and security agents not to allow the victory of Ike to be truncated by miscreants if there would be another re-run.
Diala urged INEC to do the needful by ensuring that voting materials arrived on time, sanction all INEC officers who compromised during the past elections and ensure those to be used for the re-run would not compromise.
He said: “We want INEC to beef up security in every polling unit to avoid gangsters from hijacking the process and causing violence.
“They should make sure polling units have about five well-armed security operatives drawn from different arms of security agents.”
The YPP chairman called on residents of Okigwe South constituency to always come out en mass to show love and support to the candidate of their choice at any time.
The Public Relations Officer of INEC in Imo, Emmanuella Ben-Opara, told the News Agency of Nigeria that there was no re-run scheduled for Okigwe zone for now.
She said that further directive on the matter would come from the Imo Resident Electoral Commissioner.
NAN reports that the Imo INEC is yet to announce the winner of the Okigwe South Federal Constituency re-run held on March 9.