The Labour Party in Imo State has rejected the result of the November 11 governorship election in the state announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The Party’s Chairman, Mr Callistus Ihejiagwa, said this while reacting to the outcome of the election in an interaction with journalists in Owerri, on Sunday.

Ihejiagwa said the election was characterised by “attacks, intimidation and stiff opposition to the will of the masses,” describing the announced result as unacceptable.

Citing paragraph 48, sub paragraphs A and B of the electoral guideline, Ihejiagwa said that before the commencement of final collation, he petitioned INEC over the manner of accreditation of voters but his petition fell on deaf ears as the commission proceeded to collate.

He alleged that when he insisted that collation be halted for his party’s petition to be heard, he was accused of disrupting the process and allegedly beaten up by thugs of the All Progressives Congress in the presence of security agents.

“Paragraph 48, sub paragraphs A and B of the electoral guideline says that collation shall not be done until the returning officer confirms that accreditation has been done in line with the provisions of the law.

“This section of the law was contravened and we were denied the inalienable right to fair hearing despite several calls for our petition to be heard almost two hours before the start of collation.

”But the Returning Officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina insisted that he could not entertain the petition. With the RO’s insistence, thugs of the APC beat me up, threw me out of the hall and robbed me of $1,000 and another N50,000 which I had on me,’’ he added.

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He expressed dismay over what he described as the inability of security agents to protect him in the collation centre and INEC’s failure to hear his petition, insisting that the LP’s candidate, Sen. Athan Achonu won the election and would prove it in court.

“We took our time to document the anomalies and prepare a strongly worded petition that was never heard and for this reason, we will be seeking judicial redress. LP completely dissociated itself from the purported result and will challenge it in court, with all our evidence. Our candidate, Sen. Athan Achonu won this election and we’ll retrieve the mandate in court,’’ said.