The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that there will be no fresh polls in Rivers State but a process to complete the election that was halted following widespread violence that characterised the March 23 governorship and state legislative elections.
The national commissioner supervising Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers states, Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, stated this in Port Harcourt yesterday while addressing a stakeholders’ meeting on resumption of electoral activities and completion of outstanding 2019 general elections in the state.
She said the commission was in custody of the already collated results of 17 local government areas.
The local government areas are Ahoada East, Bonny, Akuku-Toru, Obio/Akpor, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Omuma, Port Harcourt, Ikwerre, Emohua, Tai, Opobo-Nkoro, Andoni, Eleme, Etche, Ogu–Bolo, Oyigbo, and Okrika.
“All the results are with us in our strong room. They have not been tampered with. We are going to conduct the collation transparently. INEC is here to complete this process and we shall complete the process successfully,” she said.
She said although the commission did not know the winners of the elections, all the results were intact in INEC’s custody.
Agbamuche-Mbu added that the commission would follow the timelines outlined by it for the collation of the governorship election results.
INEC’s head of legal department in the state, Mr. Don Umealor, outlined the supplementary regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections.
Umealor assured that all INEC staff involved in the collation of results would conduct the process with transparency.
He also said political parties will be given the opportunity to comment on the process, but nobody will be allowed to disrupt the collation process.
Besides, he listed those eligible to be at the collation centres to include collation and returning officers, INEC personnel, one polling agent per party or candidate, approved security officials, accredited observers, accredited journalists, and any other person or organisation approved by INEC.
Meanwhile, the administrative secretary of INEC, Rivers State, Elder Etim Umoh, said collation of results was not in Khana, Asari-Toru, Degema, Ahoada West, Abua/Odual, and Gokana local government areas.
He said elections did not hold in Abua/Odual at all as materials were not dispatched to the area because of violence. I
In the case of Khana, he stated that materials were dispatched to polling units but none was returned also due to violence.
In the other affected local government areas, elections took place and results were announced at some polling units before the suspension of the process.
Umoh stated that supplementary elections would hold where necessary in the six affected polling units in the six local government areas.
Speaking at the meeting, the Rivers State governor and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the election, Mr. Nyesom Wike blamed the Nigerian Army for the violence witnessed during the collation of results.
He said the Rivers people had, before the commencement of the general elections, raised the alarm about alleged plot to unleash violence in the state, but they were accused of always crying wolf.
“The only way you can have peaceful election is when the security agencies refuse to manipulate the elections. The Army snatched results and when the people resisted them, the Army killed them. The violence was at the point of collation.
“Throughout my political career, I have never seen the kind of role the Army played. What has happened to the police officer indicted for manhandling of INEC staff during the rerun in 2016? The same officer played negative roles in the last elections,” he said.
He said the state was always peaceful, except during elections when security agencies acted negatively, stressing that the army should remove their hands from election matters.
The governor added that the security personnel for the governorship election collation should be made public to avoid illegal actions during the process.
Also speaking, the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) candidate, Mr. Biokpomabo Awara, demanded to know who had custody of the collated results.
Awara said the results ought to have been kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In response, INEC said the results were in the commission’s strong room.
In his remarks, the coordinator of Initiative for Credible Election (ICE) and former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mr. Ledum Mitee, urged INEC to publish the names of all security personnel who would man the collation centres for the sake of transparency and accountability.
