Imo North: Tension As INEC Names APC Winner Without Candidate

By GWG Staff

Tension was brewing in Imo State on Sunday after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday declared the APC winner of the Imo North Senatorial election despite not having a candidate.

While announcing the election result, at the INEC in Owerri, the Returning Officer, ERO, Hakeem Adikum said the APC won the election but stepped back from naming the candidate.

The APC was accredited with 36, 811 votes while the PDP candidate, Emmanuel Okewulonu, got 31, 903 votes.

The contest for the APC ticket peaked on election eve on Friday when rival courts in Abuja and Owerri asked that rival candidates, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and Frank Ibezim be disqualified on sundry reasons.

Ibezim is backed by the Minister of state for education and Governor Hope Uzodinma. Ararume strong on his own is also backed by the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Rochas Okorocha.

Asked why no candidate was declared as winner, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Francis Ezeonu, pointed at what he described as “Several court orders for and against Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and Frank Ibeziem both who are laying claim to the APC ticket.”

Both camps it was gathered have over the day laid siege to the Owerri office of INEC to ensure that the other camp’s candidate is not pasted as winner.

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