The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 11 off-cycle election in Imo State, Samuel Anyanwu, has vowed to explore all means to remove Governor Hope Uzodinma.
Anyanwu said he would recover his stolen mandate because the November 11 election in the state was a rape of democracy.
He disclosed this while addressing journalists in Owerri, the state capital.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Uzodinma the winner of the election, while Anywanwu was second and Achonu third in the just-concluded governorship election.
However, Anyanwu said: “The Imolites have been injured. Our collective patrimony has been withered. Our cries and wounds know no bounds. I feel your pains. My heart bleeds for the freedom of our people from the wicked governance of the state. The wicked must not go unpunished.
“Injury to one is injury to all. It will be recalled that the insecurity today in the South East is exported from Imo State to other Eastern States through the use of non-state actors for the purpose of elections.
“Moving forward, therefore, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a peace-loving party, cannot be involved in any form of violence whatsoever or lawlessness. Let me once more appeal to you to remain calm, law-abiding and good party loyalists.
“Your unflinching support, wonderful encouragement, and fervent prayers are as exceptional as they are phenomenal. We shall deploy all acceptable and all known legal machinery in motion to recover our stolen mandate.
“What really happened on November 11, 2023, was an open rape of democracy, a broad day robbery of the Imo people’s mandate, a coordinated plot to destabilise, dislocate, and disfigure a people already injured by the same cartel who has vowed not to give peace a chance in Imo State.”