Amby Uneze
7 November 2009
Owerri — Former Governorship candidate of the Action Congress (AC) in the 2007 general elections in Imo State, Hon. Uche Onyeagocha, has called for the probe of Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu, over his conduct of the 2007 general elections by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Onyeagocha said his call for Iwu's probe was enable the EFCC to have what he called a documentary evidence on the irregularities done by the INEC during the 2007 general elections.
He argued that the INEC boss should be "thoroughly" investigated by the EFCC for playing on the intelligence of Nigerians through the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for the conduct of the elections and later dumping the idea after investing huge sums of money for the same purpose.
Onyeagocha, who represented Owerri Municipal/Owerri West/ Owerri North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) from 2003 - 2007, maintained that Nigerians paid heavily for the proposal presented by Iwu regarding the use of the electronic voting system, but regretted that the INEC boss disappointed Nigerians by jettisoning the project.
According to him, when Iwu presented the electronic voting system before the National Assembly, we were elated to note that the 2007 elections would be free from fraud and rigging and it was approved for him to adopt it for the election.
He wondered why Iwu should be retained as the INEC boss for him to conduct the 2011 general elections in the country when Nigerians are still nursing the deep cut they suffered from him in 2007. "If Iwu is retained for another term, nobody should come out and vote. It will be stupid for anybody to participate in any election conducted by Iwu in this country again,", he added.
The former lawmaker was of the view that Nigeria should emulate Ghana by approaching the Electoral Commission in that country to teach INEC how best to run and conduct credible general elections, if Nigeria is ready to learn from her mistakes of the past.
Speaking while fielding questions in an interactive forum organised by the Correspondents' Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Imo State Council, Onyeagocha said the federal government's plan to de-regulate the downstream oil industry was nauseating.
"I am opposed to deregulation. I will be part of any protest against it. Government is not sincere in some of her policies especially as it relates to corruption", he observed.
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