Dead people voted in Imo election, says Nwosu

The Imo State governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the March 23 gubernatorial election, Uche Nwosu, has alleged that dead people voted in the three councils of Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu in the governorship election.

Nwosu, who addressed reporters in Owerri, said forensic investigation on the ballot papers showed that hundreds of dead people were among voters.

The candidate, who was granted leave by the Election Petition Tribunal to inspect the electoral materials, described the findings as shocking and unbelievable.

According to him, the result declared by the Returning Officer, Prof. Francis Otunta, did not reflect the actual figure as uncovered during the scrutiny of the voting materials and Card Readers used in the election.

He said: “It was shocking to discover that dead persons were among those who voted in Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte and Ahiazu Local Government Areas. After the election and the results were announced, I made it clear to my supporters that there was no election in Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu and Ezinihitte. I told them that my results were changed to favour Ihedioha.

“After we got Certified True Copies of the election materials, to our greatest surprise, we discovered that hundreds of dead people voted there. We have people who came to tell us that the names of their dead relations were in the list of registered voters and they actually voted.

“We also discovered that what the Returning Officer, Prof. Francis Otunta, declared was totally different from the total number of registered voters that the Card Reader recorded, especially in those three councils. I have never seen this high level of manipulation and electoral fraud, but I have high hopes in the judiciary, and that’s why we are relying on the Tribunal to get justice.”