Izunaso rejects APC convention results as Imo delegates alleged rigging

Senator Osita Izunaso yesterday rejected the result of the just concluded national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in which he lost the National Organising Secretary position to Emma Ibediro.

Spokesperson of the Imo APC stakeholders’ forum, Theo Ekechi, who confirmed the development, disclosed that Izunaso had filed an appeal before the Ken Nnamani-led appeal sub-committee of the convention aimed at nullifying the victory of Ibediro, who is a key loyalist to Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha.

Ibediro was declared winner with 1,749 votes ahead of Izunaso’s 1,459 votes.

But Ekechi who addressed journalists on behalf of the group in Abuja, argued that but for the alleged machinations of the Governor Abubakar Badaru-led convention committee, Izunaso would have won the poll.

Badaru was alleged to have worked with Okorocha’s cohorts to manipulate the result in favour of Ibediro.

He claimed that Badaru unilaterally barred delegates from Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Abia, Adamawa and Jigawa states who would have voted for Izunaso from casting 1,246 ballots required to outnumber the 290 votes difference, which gave Ibediro victory.

“Okorocha and Izunaso, who was the anointed candidate of the South East, had reached a consensus that for peace to reign the lmo delegates would not vote.

“We immediately contacted Izunaso who denied ever having any pact with Baduru talk more of reaching a consensus that will deny his own obvious supporters and state’s delegates from voting.

“All efforts to make Baduru withdraw the announcement proved abortive as he cleverly and artfully evaded all efforts to engage him in any further conversation to expose his lies.

“Once again, for the records, at no point did lzunaso or any of his agents had such an agreement, whether oral or written, to disenfranchise lmo accredited delegates,” he stated.

He explained that in the case of Jigawa, Badaru’s home state, the ballot papers for the position of the National Organising Secretary were curiously missing, adding that there was no doubt as to why Baduru and Okorocha targeted these states for exclusion from collated votes before announcing the results.

Ekechi added that Anambra, lmo and Abia states as part of the South East zone endorsed Izunaso unequivocally and were seen to have accordingly voted for him overwhelmingly.

“In the case of Akwa lbom and Adamawa states, exit polls also indicated that they voted overwhelmingly for Izunaso.

Intelligence information reveals that the ballot papers for Jigawa for the National Organising Secretary were thumb printed before the convention but could not be stuffed at the last minute as planed because of failure of their strategy.”