Imo state governor Rochas Okorocha has said that the returning officer for Imo west senatorial election, Professor Innocent Ibeabuchi, lied to INEC that he declared him winner of the poll out of duress. Based on the aforementioned claim, Okorocha on Monday called on Nigeria’s electoral body to issue him with a certificate of return as the Senator-Elect for Imo West. INEC had insisted that it will not issue a certificate of return to Okorocha based on a claim by Ibeabuchi that he declared the winner of the February 23 election out of duress. But addressing journalists at the Imo government house in Owerri, Okorocha insisted that INEC had no constitutional justification for withholding his certificate of return.

“I cannot understand how a mere allegation of somebody, an individual, talking about duress, which has not been proven by anybody, will stop INEC from giving me my certificate of return for an election that I won properly,” he said.

“I cannot understand why an individual’s report of a professor who lied, will now be taken more than the report by the Nigeria Police, State Security Service, that said there was no crisis, everything was peaceful. The returning officer should be called to order.”