Rep. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), has lauded the recent diplomatic actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding democratic accountability in Venezuela. In a statement released on Friday, January 9, 2026, the lawmaker urged the international community to apply similar pressure to protect the sanctity of the ballot in Nigeria, specifically referencing the political situation in Imo State.
Ugochinyere, who represents the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency, argued that “global democratic standards must be universal.” He called on the United States and the United Kingdom to impose immediate visa bans and seize assets belonging to specific individuals he accused of masterminding the “brazen rigging” of recent local and state-level elections in Imo. He emphasized that without international consequences for electoral offenders, Nigeria’s democracy remains under threat from “political hijackers.”
The lawmaker’s comments follow a series of disputed local government polls in the Southeast, which have been marred by allegations of violence and result manipulation. Ugochinyere urged President Bola Tinubu to direct security agencies to arrest and prosecute those identified in various petitions as electoral saboteurs. As of Friday evening, the Imo State government has not issued an official rebuttal to the lawmaker’s claims, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state maintains that its victories were a true reflection of the people’s will.
