The member, representing Ideator North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State, Hon. Austin Chukwukere, was the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the February 23 National Assembly election but failed in his bid. In this interview with our correspondent Johnkennedy Uzoma, in Owerri, he spoke on the ‘stolen mandate’ and insisted that he would reclaim it.
Could you please recall what actually happened during the National Assembly/presidential elections in your constituency?
I can tell you that what happened in Ideato North and South Federal Constituency was really a sham of an election. We started very well but before then there was rumour and stories that the Action Alliance, AA, candidate for the House of Representatives and the incumbent Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, was planning to rig the election with thugs with the backing of the security agencies. We thought it was a joke because the people in the area are peaceful and believe in due process and trusted the electoral process that everything will go very well.
I can as well tell you that the February 23 election has been significantly different because it was remarkably marred by rigging, thuggery and intimidation, which people of the area are not used to.
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My campaign organisation ran a very credible campaign and we used the process to speak to people on our performance and they gave us assurance to vote for APC base on our track records. Going by what we campaigned for, people were out to vote for me and they were actually voting APC candidate until when INEC workers were manipulated and were taken to a place allegedly believed to be the house of the governor of the state where they were forced to write result in favour of the governor, who was seeking to go to senate and the same result was written for the AA candidate for the House of Representatives in the same federal constituency. I found it as unbelievable, aberration and practicably impossible that my people would vote for AA and at the same time vote for APC in the same election. The election was manipulated and heavily rigged in favour of the AA candidate and the governor. They used thugs to lock down the constituency in order to rig the election in their favour.
How would assess the performance of INEC in that last election?
We have always believed that INEC is the unbiased umpire of election. I don’t have reason to doubt the credibility of their workers both at the state and at the national levels. But going by what happened at Orlu Zone where the INEC returning officer said that he announced the result under duress, showed that the election was marred by violence and rigging. What this goes to portend is that if INEC allows the result of the election in my federal constituency, in future the people who are vying for elective positions will not campaign, they will not seek the mandate of the people rather they will want to wait to carry the returning officer of INEC, who would announce result and declare them winner with gun pointed right in his face.
If INEC allows the result to stand, it means that they are setting up a bad precedence by telling people that it does not matter and that people do not matter in electoral or democratic process. This means that whoever has the biggest number of soldiers or thugs will have his way through manipulation of electoral process in his favour. I believe INEC should not allow it (result) to stand, rather peoples mandate should be allowed to stand and their voices should be heard. Because if this did not happen, what we shall see is that election would witness heavy apathy in the turnout of people to come out and vote. This is because if people’s vote did not count, people might not waste their time to come out under the sun to cast their votes. So, INEC should not allow their credibility to be in doubt, they must rather ensure that the process, credible and credibility never experience an aorta of doubt. They should ensure that any area that does not conform with the card reader should have zero votes. And we want INEC to scrutinise those areas and see that card readers that was never used, that was not deployed are not manipulated. We call on INEC to do what they said they would do to those areas and ensure that the rest of the areas where voting took place counts. Those areas that experience manipulation should be zeroed out so that people will learn a lesson and know that all they should do is go out and talk to people in order to win their minds and not to manipulate the election and get away with it.
What action do you intend to take should INEC go ahead to hold on the result of the election?
We shall look at every other option that is open to us as well as other legitimate means to reclaim our mandate. Because I believe that the people gave me their mandate as their candidate to be able to continue with the good and effective representation. And based on our campaign, they believed in us again going by the promises we made to them. They believed in us to be able to go back to do more in attracting dividend of democracy. If INEC does anything contrary, we shall use all legitimate means to reclaim our mandate
How is your view on the conduct of the February 23 election holistically?
In this case I have to speak on the areas that concern me, that is talking about my federal constituency; Ideator South and North, Orlu senatorial zone and Imo State at large. I have said it many times that the election in Imo State was heavily marred by violence and rigging and this has never happened in the history of Imo State before. I want to say that Imo is peaceful and believe that the right thing should be done. We call on the INEC to do the proper thing
How would you react to the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the presidential election?
My president won with a wide margin and I am happy about it. In fact I actually campaigned for him in the course of my campaign and I am happy that my people gave him another mandate to rule the country again
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What do you think Nigerians would expect from him in his second tenure?
My president need to be liberal in this his second tenure and to work for the good of Nigerians and not to disappoint the people of the country. We also expect him to continue to focus on his three agenda anchoring on security, economy and fight on corruption. This would enable Nigerians to get fair deal to get to higher pedestal
As a federal lawmaker, what are your achievements for your constituency?
In the course of our campaign before the election, there is no community where we did not commission projects. We carried out community based campaign and the projects were renovation and rehabilitation of health centers, equipping the health centers, building of solar power, borehole, electricity, checking erosion control and roads projects as the case may be. We also did youth and women acquisition and they were given money to start up something
If you succeed to go back to the National Assembly, which area do you feel you have not done well and would like to focus on?
I will continue to be people oriented and relate directly with the people. We shall devote more time to tackling erosion menace and building of more health centres in the area. With the seven and half years, Ideator nation has no electricity. So we are going to see to that to ensure that the problem of electricity and water is tackled to ensure people have access to good drinking water.
