Ahead of the resumption of collation of results in the Rivers State governorship and state assembly elections billed for Tuesday, the rival political actors in the state appear to have resumed their bickering.
This is just as a civil society group, the Electorate Rights Defence and Education Network (ERDEN), has called for the redeployment of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Rivers State, Mr Obo Effanga, and all other senior staff of the Commission, accusing them of partiality and incompetence.
But as the collation of results resumes on Tuesday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday alleged that security operatives were under pressure to help in scuttling the collation of results from the March 9 governorship election in Rivers State.
The party said it had uncovered a plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to cause confusion in the state in order to undermine the collation of results.
The party, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “The APC plans to orchestrate violent disagreements and crisis at the stakeholders’ meeting scheduled by INEC ahead of the collation billed for April 2-5, 2019, so as to scuttle the exercise and stall the announcement of Governor Wike, who is the rightful winner of the election.
“In order to achieve this ignoble plot, the APC has conspired with certain compromised security agents to be bandying phantom security reports in Rivers State as a decoy for the execution of their ugly plan.”
The PDP added that it was not unaware of pressure being mounted on the heads of certain security heads, especially the Directorate of State Services (DSS), by a serving minister to stop the collation.
“APC should note that their plot has been exposed and that Rivers people will never allow them to have their way. Any person pushing such heinous machination in Rivers State will have him or herself to blame,” the statement noted.
The PDP further cautioned the APC and their “co-travellers to desist from any act aimed at scuttling the scheduled collation of results, which figures, confirming Governor Nyesom Wike’s victory, are known to all.”
But in its reaction, the APC in Rivers State hit back at the PDP, accusing it of developing a notoriety for making wild allegations.
APC publicity secretary in Rivers State, Chris Finebone, who spoke with LEADERSHIP Weekend in response to the PDP’s allegation, said: “There is absolutely no truth in this. It is just another wild allegation for which the national leadership of the PDP has become so infamous.”
In his own response, spokesman of the Cole/Giadom Campaign Organisation (CGCO), Ogbonna Nwuke, said the PDP national leadership had become accustomed to making unverifiable allegations.
Nwuke said: “These accusations that are neither cogent or verifiable have become the hallmark of the PDP. For us in the APC, these accusations, save for their propaganda value, are trite.
“However, it would make sense to isolate Amaechi from what is going on. Rivers people are the ones who are on the streets protesting electoral fraud.
“They are the ones saying Obo Effanga is conniving with Governor Wike to steal their votes. It is not Amaechi. So how is Amaechi planning to scuttle the collation of the election results?”
Meanwhile, a civil society group, the Electorate Rights Defence and Education Network (ERDEN), has called on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakubu, to redeploy the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Rivers State, Obo Effanga, for alleged incompetence and partisanship.
The group, in a petition to Prof Yakubu, a copy of which was made available to LEADERSHIP Weekend, also demanded the redeployment of other INEC senior staff from Rivers State in order to restore credibility to the process.
The petition, dated March 29, 2019 and signed by ERDEN’s executive director, David Adejola, urged the INEC chairman to stop Effanga before he plunges the state into anarchy.
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The letter reads in part: “We in the Electorate Rights Defence and Education Network (ERDEN) are appealing to your conscience as a Nigerian and as the chairman of INEC to please exercise the powers conferred on you by the constitution and Electoral Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, to call, reprimand and stop Mr Obo Effanga from plunging Rivers State into unimaginable anarchy.
“We wish to draw your esteemed attention to the brazen display of gross incompetence and partisanship orchestrated by Mr Effanga in cahoots in INEC in Rivers State which is capable of causing serious breach of peace if not nipped in the bud now.
“The March 9, 2019 governorship election and House of Assembly elections were already planned to produce a premeditated winner against all known electoral laws in the country.”
The group alleged that known card carrying members of PDP were intentionally recruited as electoral officials – Returning Officers, Collation Officers and Polling Officers – in order to give undue advantage to the party as if went ahead to listed the names such persons.
It said: “All of the above named persons were well known members of the ruling party in the state. It took the resistance of opposition parties, especially the African Action Congress, for the REC to withdraw them from the official list of INEC adhoc staff, but only after pictorial evidence of the aforesaid persons wearing PDP T-shirts and caps were presented that the REC reluctantly delisted them.”
The ERDEN noted that recruiting PDP members as electoral officials contravened Section 29 Electoral Act as amended, and signalled that all were not going to be well with the conduct of the election, even as it accused the REC in Rivers State as unfit for his high office.
“We unequivocally want to place on record that the Port Harcourt Constituency 3 election held in 2018 that has remained inconclusive till date is a clear sign of gross incompetence of the highest degree on the side of the REC, and the REC is not perturbed to date.
“Based on the foregoing, therefore, we demand the following: That the purported election of 9th March, 2019 result that is being envisaged to be announced remains invalid as time and events have naturally annulled the fraud (election) perpetuated by the REC and his cohorts.
“That the said suspension was an arrest of due process. We will recall that elections had been concluded at 2pm on the 9th of March while the suspension based on widespread violence was at 4pm, Sunday March 10, 2019 when seven LGAs had been collated out of the available 14 LGA results.
“This leaves us to wonder if the violence in the previous day’s election was carried over. To worsen the situation, the Commission after several days claimed it had in its custody 17 LGA results. The question again is, was collation continued after suspension as 14 and 17 are not alike.
“That the credibility of an election that was conducted on 9th of March, 2019 and collated on 2nd April 2019 for declaration, a clear 23 days after the citizens dutifully cast their votes, is against all known democratic norms and ethos the world over; it is also questionable. The verifiable outcome of such an election has already been enveloped with great doubt, hence its unacceptability.
“We demand the conduct of another election within 90 days from now. We demand the immediate removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr Obo Effanga, if any election will have credibility and pass local and international democratic scrutiny. Mr Effanga has lost the confidence of the electorate.”
The group warned that “no attempt should be made under to announce the result of March 9th 2019 governorship election because that will be a recipe to complete anarchy.”
The group demanded the redeployment of all senior staff of INEC, Rivers State, without further delay because they had all been compromised.
