Governorship candidate of the Accord Party in Rivers State, Dumo Lulu-Briggs, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to outrightly cancel the suspended March 9, 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.
He said the decision of INEC to suspend the entire process brought a great relief to the people of the state, considering the alleged considering the widespread outcry and condemnation of the conduct of the Governorship and House of Assembly Elections in the state.
Lulu-Briggs, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday by the Director-General of DLB Campaign Organization, Rt. Hon. Iyke Oji, said the decision of INEC truncated the activities of bloodthirsty politicians who were already threatening more violence and bloodshed in the state.
The statement reads in part: “The suspension of all election processes in Rivers State as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must have come to most well-meaning citizens and residents as a relief, considering the widespread outcry and condemnation of the conduct of the March 9, Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections in the state.
“We commend INEC for the promptness in taking this decision at the time it did given the unfolding ugly situation in Rivers State which was heating up an already volatile political atmosphere. The March 9, elections in the state had not only recorded widespread incidents of disruptions of the electoral processes but has recorded the harassment and intimidation of voters and loss of lives of civilians and security personnel.
“INEC’s action truncated the activities of bloodthirsty politicians who were already threatening more violence and bloodshed. The suspension of the electoral processes was a disappointment to the agents of destruction who were already threatening mayhem had INEC not stepped in.
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“From the events that characterized the March 9, 2019 Governorship and Assembly Elections, there is no doubt that INEC did the right and appropriate thing by suspending the electoral processes in Rivers State. This has restored faith and confidence in a process that was marred by violence, thuggery and militarization of the entire process.
“Based on graphic and detailed reports from our agents across Rivers State, we state as follows that: Thugs and cultists, some of them armed with lethal weapons, said to be acting in the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP invaded several voting units, intimidating voters, carting away electoral materials, harassing INEC staff and generating fake results in areas under their forceful control.
“In the same manner, alleged influential supporters and thugs of a hitherto obscure party, the African Action Congress (AAC), unleashed terror on the state with the supposed backing of state security agencies. The AAC gang also invaded several voting units under their control, intimidating voters, carting away electoral materials, harassing INEC staff and generating their own version of election results.
“The Rivers State electorate was on March 9, said to be caught between the armed thugs/cultists of the PDP and the state security agencies supporting the AAC.
“Media houses are awash with bizarre stories of abducted, intimidated, harassed INEC staff, held hostage in covert locations and compelled at gun-point to announce results of phantom elections, which in the words of the INEC staff were not true reflections of what transpired at the polling units and collation centers, but results already computed and tabulated by their captors and abductors.
“The persons who perpetrated these wanton destruction of electoral materials, harassment and abduction of electoral officers, disruptions of the electoral process and hijacking of already completed ballots with the intent to mutilate and falsify the results from such areas, acted with audacity, impunity and operated freely in subverting the electoral process and the law of the land.”
