…15 Guber Candidates Demand Redeployment Of Rivers Rec
Following the suspension of the March 9, 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to tamper with the results of the governorship election.
This is as 15 governorship candidates in Rivers State, under the auspices of the Coalition of Governorship Candidates and Party Chairmen (CGCPC) have called on the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, to redeploy the commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Obo Effanga.
The APC, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt last night by the spokesman of Tonye Cole Campaign Organization, Hon. Ogbonna Nwuke, said results received before INEC announced the suspension of the election indicated that the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Biokpomabo Awara was set to win.
The statement reads in part: “We have learnt that the Independent National Electoral Commission has suspended the collation of election results in which Engineer Biokpomabo Awara of the African Action Congress, AAC was set to win.
“We have also learnt that the precipitate decision taken by INEC was based on a presumptive assumption that the election was marred by violence.
“Our position is that elections in Rivers State was largely peaceful, free and fair. INEC’s claim when compared with the situation on ground does not reflect what is on ground. Neither does it reflect the thinking and perception of the good people of Rivers State who went to vote despite threats peddled by the opposition.
“In Akuku Toru, Asari Toru, Ahoada West, Eleme, Oyigbo, Ikwerre, Emohua and other areas, elections conducted by the commission were free and fair. The results that have been so far received show that Engineer Biokpomabo Awara of the AAC supported by the APC was poised to win.
“We are shocked that agents of the PDP serving in INEC who are known to be acting in cohorts with the PDP would mislead the commission at the national level through claims that there were widespread attempts to disrupt the said elections.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we insist that Engineer Awara was on the road to victory. We affirm that neither INEC nor agents of darkness in our midst can stop the will of the Rivers people at this time.”
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Governorship Candidates and Party Chairmen in Rivers State (CGCPC) has accused the INEC REC in the state, Obo Effanga, of keeping deaf ears to the hijack of election materials in some local government areas in the state during the elections.
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The CGCPC, in a statement signed by its Chairman and governorship candidate of the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), Warigbani Ezekiel Zebulun and two others, however commended electorates in the state for coming out enmass to vote on the election day.
It reads in part: “We, the Coalition of Governorship Candidates and Party Chairmen in Rivers State wish to commend the good people of Rivers State for coming out enmass to Cast their vote for their preferred candidate.
“However, we condemn in strong terms the inordinate and unpatriotic actions of the Governor of Rivers State and gubernatorial candidate of PDP Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike, who stooped too low to personally hijack the election result sheets and materials meant for Obio/Akpor LGA during which process, an Army officer was shot by his thugs.
“This acts goes to confirm our earlier allegations against the Wike-led State government of gun running.
“It is on record that the State Governor had earlier in his speech commended INEC for her free, fair and credible conduct of the election in the State. We therefore, express shock at his call for cancellation of the exercise, as his shameful act of thuggery greets his imminent defeat. On the premise of this ugly and shameful acts, the collation of results has been suspended by INEC.
“The Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC Rivers State had earlier appointed a younger brother to the Rivers South East senatorial District Candidate of PDP, who also is a strong member of PDP as the returning officer for Khana local Government area.
“The REC also in his voodoo dance appointed PDP members as returning officers for Emohua, Eleme, Andoni, OKRIKA, Omuma, Ogu/Bolo, Tai and PHALGA, with an instruction to deliver the PDP.
“In spite of the above, the REC paid deaf hears to the unearthical and undemocratic activities of the gubernatorial candidate of PDP who hijacked all electoral materials of Obio/Akpor LGA at the collation center.
“We therefore, in the spirit of fairness call on the National Chairman of INEC Prof. Mamood Yakubu to, as a matter of urgency, redeploy the State Resident Electoral COMMISSIONER in-charge of Rivers State to enable the new REC to continue the electoral process.
“We wholeheartedly commend the Army for the display of professionalism and ensuring adequate security before, during and after the election, we pray them to maintain the tempo as only those with sinister plans will not appreciate the commendable efforts of the Army.
“We call on the Nigerian Police and her sister agencies to continue to beef-up adequate security in the State to forestall further breakdown of laws and order.”
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