The Imo government on Tuesday said it had no plans to rig the September 21 local government elections, saying the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party was “firmly rooted in the grassroots in the state.”
The government further declared that Governor Hope Uzodimma’s popularity and the people-oriented projects across the state would guarantee overwhelming success for the APC in the elections.
The Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy, Mr Declan Emelumba, said this in Owerri, while briefing the media on the government’s preparedness to sweep the polls.
Mr Emelumba described the allegation by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Governor Uzodimma had smuggled in written results to the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) as “insulting”.
Recall that the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr Lancelot Obiaku, had in a statement alleged that the state government was set to rig the polls.
Dismissing the allegation, Mr Emelumba described PDP as a “failed party in tatters that is ill-prepared for the election.”
“They already know that they cannot win a single ward in the state, which is why they are crying wolf, trying to discredit an election that is yet to hold,” he said.
He berated PDP for always raising false alarms to attract sympathy, instead of going to the field to campaign.
He said APC was not only strong in the state, but formidable and impregnable as evidenced in the performance during the 2023 governorship election in the state.
“APC won in all the 27 Local Government Areas of the state. PDP could not even win the local government of their governorship candidate.
“After dragging APC to all the courts, the Supreme Court still affirmed that His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma, won fair and square,” he said.
Mr Emelumba said APC was rooted in the grassroots in the state, and no governor with such record would descend low to rig a local government election.
He called on the electorate to ignore the PDP and vote massively for APC as a guarantee for more democracy dividends in the state, especially at the grassroots.
(NAN)
