The Igbo in the diaspora and the Pan Niger Delta Forum have vowed to resist any attempt to rig the Anambra State governorship election scheduled for November 6.
They urged stakeholders involved in the conduct of the election to ensure that the poll was free, fair and devoid of intimidation.
They stated this during a zoom conference organised by a rights group, Civil Society Committee for Anti-fraud Election Security.
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The Igbo in the diaspora and PANDEF leaders, including Chairman of World Igbo Congress, Prof Anthony Ejiofor, his World Igbo Assembly counterpart, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze, and the Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, who spoke from the United States of America and Germany, opined that the violence in the state was politically motivated.
While condemning the bloodletting in the state ahead of the poll, they alleged that certain external forces were planning to impose a governor on the state at all costs.
Anakwenze, said, “Anambra State is Igbo heartland. External forces outside the state are doing everything under the sun to impose a governor on the state to enable them hijack the South-East region.”
On his part, Ejiofor said, “We have reliable information that voters in the state will be intimidated in such a way that they won’t come out to cast their votes on the election day, through militarilisation of the state, to pave the way for the manipulation of the process in favour of a predetermined candidate.”
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Ejiofor warned that the WIC, under his leadership, would stage a heavy protest in America against the outcome of the governorship poll if it was manipulated.
The PANDEF spokesman urged the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies to ensure that the election was not manipulated.
A former Minister of Women Affairs, Chief Josephine Anenih, warned those sponsoring bloodletting in the state to desist from such act, describing it as a sacrilege that could bring a generational curse upon the perpetrators.
The convener of the conference, Kennedy Iyare, on his part, urged journalists and people of the state to use the group’s anti-fraud situation room to expose any unwholesome activities during the poll.
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