INEC Petitions DSS, Police Over Alleged APC Primary Result Linking Okorocha To Imo-West Ticket
The Commission said it had attached copies of the authentic report and the disputed document to its petitions as Annexures A and B, respectively, urging the security agencies to investigate the circumstances surrounding…
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is constitutionally empowered to monitor party primaries and keep custody of official results submitted by political parties ahead of elections. Disputes over primary outcomes are common in Nigerian politics, particularly in closely contested senatorial and governorship races, and often end up before the courts or security agencies when rival camps produce conflicting documents claiming to be the authentic result.
In this case, INEC says a document purporting to show the outcome of the APC primary for the Imo-West senatorial ticket — and linking former Imo State governor Rocas Okorocha to it — has been circulating, which the commission considers at variance with its own records. By formally petitioning the Department of State Services and the police, and attaching both the version it holds as authentic and the disputed one as annexures, INEC is pushing for a criminal investigation into who produced and circulated the alleged fake result, rather than resolving the matter through its own administrative channels alone. What remains unclear from the coverage so far is who specifically is accused of fabricating the document, whether any arrests have followed, and how the discrepancy could affect APC's candidacy for the seat.