The Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party have reportedly called for the cancellation of the Imo State governorship election held on Saturday, alleging various irregularities and subversion of the people’s will.

At a press conference on Saturday night, the deputy governorship candidate of the LP, Tony Nwulu, expressed concern about the conduct of security agents, accusing them of providing cover for individuals involved in undermining the electoral process.

Nwulu claimed, “There was no election in Imo State on Saturday. What happened was the diversion of electoral materials to the homes of people and the LGA council headquarters. In all this, the police, Army, and the DSS provided security to the actors.”

He further alleged instances of votes buying and asserted that the LP emerged victorious based on the actual votes cast, emphasizing, “Democracy is under threat in this state.”

Nwulu continued, “They came with huge sums of money to the polling units for votes buying, but the Imo people rejected them. They now resorted to snatching of electoral materials, diversion of the electoral materials to homes of individuals and to the LGA headquarters where they are currently rewriting the results. We have all the records. We are putting Nigerians on notice that there was no election in Imo State on Saturday. The position of our party and my principal, Senator Athan Achonu, who is the governorship candidate of the party is that this sham called election be cancelled.”

In a separate press conference, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Samuel Anyanwu, echoed the call for the election’s cancellation.

Anyanwu accused the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agents of failing in their constitutional responsibility to deliver credible elections.

He alleged that security agents protected INEC staff while members of the All Progressives Congress rewrote the results.

Anyanwu and the PDP insisted that they would not accept anything less than a total cancellation of the poll.