A Civil Society Organisation known as International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, has raised alarm over an alleged plot to compromise the Imo Governorship election scheduled to hold November 2023.

The CSO which petitioned Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Prof. Mahmood Yakubu sought for the immediate transfer of REC Sylvia Agu and the electoral body’s 27 local government areas electoral officers.

In a letter dated 8th June, 2023  addressed to the INEC Chairman, Yakubu and signed by the organisation’s Board Chair Emeka Umeagbalasi and Head, Democracy Program, Chinwe Umeche Esquire, the CSO said this was due to the roles played by substantive and adhoc officers during the 2023 Presidential/National/State Assembly polls in Imo State.

Listing several reasons and the electoral officers, they said their long stay in such electoral places of posting has also made them vulnerable, adding that the organisation is ‘certainly not sure’ that they are capable of conducting a participatory and credible Governorship Poll in the State on Nov 11, 2023. 

The letter read in part, “This timely letter of ours is to enable the Commission enough time to expeditiously and critically respond to the subject matter and its accompanying demands. This letter had arisen from our several checks and findings including general evaluation of the 2023 Presidential/National/State Assembly polls in imo State and various indictable roles played by substantive and adhoc officers during the polls. Reliable intelligence at our disposal had indicated that several officers deployed by the Commission played different indictable roles to undermine the credibility of the polls: to the extent that the State Assembly Poll in the State was the worst of it all and a ‘walkover’ for candidates of the State ruling APC. There were also “Omuma Magic Results” during the Presidential and National Assembly Polls, vicariously or otherwise, the State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Sylvia Agu did not stand tall to be respected. This was as a result of her poor handling of the polls and as a result, she cannot be trusted to deliver a participatory and credible Governorship Poll in Imo State during the Nov 11, 2023 Governorship Poll.

“Therefore, Intersociety, having comprehensively checked and monitored the goings on in Imo State ahead of the Nov 11, 2023 Governorship Poll, has found that present REC Sylvia Agu and INEC’s 27 Local Government Electoral Officers (EOs) are grossly incapable of ensuring participatory and credible Governorship Poll in the State. The Commission’s ‘fact-finding’ visit to Imo State scheduled in coming days within the week must be used as a good opportunity to address the wrongs under complaint and reposition the Commission in imo State ahead of the important poll. The Imo INEC departments and its heads require immediate and total overhaul by the Headquarters of the Commission the (CT and its heads, the Local Government Electoral Officers (EOs) and so on. 

“The Headquarters of the Commission must also be told in clear terms that the Electoral Officers in Imo State’ 27 Local Government Areas have long overstayed their welcome: having stayed ‘longer than necessary’ or far above periods allowed by the INEC Establishment Act of 2004 or the Electoral Act of 2022 as amended.”