Imo Re-Run Polls: DIG Orders Arrest Of Any orderly Escorting Politicians, Others

As three AIGs To Supervise Security

A DEPUTY Inspector General of Police (DIG), Force Headquarters, Abuja, Job Dona, has ordered the arrest of any police official seen escorting any politician to any polling unit in Imo State during today’s governorship and House of Assembly re-run polls.

The elections would be held in over 250 polling units in 23 out of 27 Local Councils in the state.

He warned that no police orderly attached to any politician or influential Nigerian should be seen moving around with his or her master. Addressing the elections stakeholders, including politicians of all the political parties participating in the polls and journalists at the command’s headquarters in Owerri yesterday, DIG Dona also ordered that any such police officer caught should be made to face the necessary trials according to the rules of engagement of the police force.

He disclosed that other three Assistant Inspectors General (AIGs) of police and among other commissioners of police and other combined team of security agencies, would provide security during the elections. He urged voters to obey the electoral laws and go about their businesses peacefully, warning that the total restrictions be observed from 8 a.m to 6p.m. in all parts of the state.

A fortnight ago, the polls were declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer in the state, Prof. Ibidabo Obe, of the Federal University of Technology, Ebonyi, after considering that the All Progressives Congress (APC), candidate and incumbent governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha scored above 385,000, leading with a margin of a little above 79,000 against his closest opponent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship standard bearer and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, who scored above 306,000 votes.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), governorship candidate and a former Minister of Interior, Captain Emma Iheanacho, scored a little above 28,000 to come distant third. There were then more than 144,000 cancelled votes because of one electoral fraud, violence of ballot snatching or the other, causing the Returning Officer to declare the elections in the state inconclusive.

Okorocha led in 20 Local Councils, while Ihedioha captured seven councils, but APGA did not win in any council.

The Resident Electoral commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, Dr. Gabriel Adah, told journalists on Thursday in Owerri that about 113,803 voters in the polling units affected collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs).