By Ibrahim Hassan, Kaduna

A group; the Unified Nigeria Youth Forum has said that the election in Imo state where Governor Hope Uzodinma was re-elected, has proved critics wrong as it was free, fair and credible.

While addressing a press conference in Kaduna on Monday, Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, President of the Youth forum and Aliyu Muhammad, the Publicity Secretary, commended INEC for holding the most peaceful and credible elections in Imo state and the security agencies for ensuring that voters came out freely to vote in Imo state.

“As with our custom, we sent observers to the three states to monitor the conduct of the elections. As usual, also, our interest remained on how to deepen our democracy with whatever results were made available to us. As a non-governmental organisation, we are not partisan and therefore have no affiliation to any of the political parties,” they said

According to the youth group, “reports from our field officers indicated that the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi experienced pockets of violence but not to the point of impugning on the integrity of the results. Both the security agencies and other institutions involved in the conduct of the election did their very best to ensure that the wishes of the people were reflected in the results.”

“However that of Imo was completely different as the election was free, fair and credible. Going by the fears of many that Imo was a volatile area, it turned out to be false. This is not to say that there were no untoward incidences in isolated areas. Some vote buyers were arrested as already reported by the media and some people who wanted to disrupt the collation of state results were forcibly removed from the hall.”

“By and large, the election was held in all the 27 local government areas of the state. Where there was voter apathy like in the metropolis where people were angry over power cuts by NLC, the results reflected as such.”

The Unified Nigeria Youth Forum, however, expressed surprise that another NGO was turning in a completely different account of what happened in Imo state.

They said that Nigerians could recollect, that the NGO’s report during the general elections was against the victory of APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “In the same vein, its support also went for the candidate of a particular political party and its candidate in Imo state, So they wrote a report to suit the whims of the said party and their co-travellers,” they alleged.

The youth group said all the demands of one of the losers were what the NGO was parroting, adding “Take for instance where they reported that elections didn’t hold. There was no empirical evidence provided, the time of their being there, who they talked with etc. …”

“We are here to commend INEC for holding the most peaceful, free, fair, and credible elections in Imo state among the three states involved in the off-season elections. We equally commend the security agencies for ensuring that voters came out freely to vote in Imo state,” the youth group said.