Ohanaeze youths demand redeployment of INEC National Commissioner

The Ohanaeze Youth Forum, OYF, has raised alarm over purported menace to the credibility of the 2027 elections within the South-East following allegations of partisanship in opposition to the INEC National Commissioner overseeing Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi states, Dr. Ken Nnamdi Ukeagu.

The Ohanaeze youths in a press release alleged that Ukeagu has deserted the neutrality that his workplace calls for, in alternate for partisan relationships.

The group alleged that the INEC Commissioner has grow to be a dedicated ally of the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, Peter Obi, and different opposition candidates in Imo and Anambra States.

An announcement signed by the Secretary-General, Ohanaeze Youth Forum, OYF, Agwu-Awah Malachy, lamented that the South-East has endured sufficient instability, and won’t keep silent whereas the area’s electoral course of is compromised from inside.

“According to the reliable information at our disposal, the Commissioner is actively collaborating with these candidates. He has been leaking sensitive INEC documents to them, offering them electoral consultancy. These are not minor lapses. They are direct breaches of the Electoral Act and of the oath of impartiality every INEC officer swears,” OYF alleged.

“The danger of leaving this compromised officer in place is clear and alarming. Elections depend on public trust. If voters believe the officer supervising their election is working for one side, they will reject the outcome, however it turns out.

“Sensitive election info in partisan fingers invitations manipulation, undermines honest competitors, and offers shedding events a prepared motive to reject outcomes.

“In a region as politically charged as the South-East, this could provoke unrest and deepen public cynicism, and it would weaken Nigeria’s democracy, which depends on the integrity of its electoral institutions, and breed another cycle of armed conflict.

Following the series of allegations, OYF urged the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, to immediately redeploy Dr Ukeagu from oversight of the South-East, pending a full and transparent investigation into these matters.

The Ohanaeze group said, “We shall be forwarding to the Commission a petition bearing all of the information and paperwork now we have uncovered.

“We also urge the Presidency, the National Assembly and the Council of State to treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves as a national security issue.

“The youth of Igboland are watching, and we is not going to enable anybody to show our area’s elections right into a partisan undertaking. We will sustain peaceable, lawful stress till INEC acts. We name on all stakeholders, the media, civil society and safety companies to assist defend the integrity of the 2027 polls. The credibility of Nigeria’s democracy is at stake right here.”