As you are aware, the Governorship and House of
Assembly elections were held across the country on
Saturday. While the elections went on smoothly in most
parts of the country, the situation was different in some
others, where all that took place was nothing but mock
elections, a mere charade!
Two of the states that witnessed such caricature of
elections are Rivers and Akwa Ibom, where elections were
not conducted in accordance with INEC guidelines.
Because of this, we in the APC are left with no choice than
to demand the immediate cancellation of the purported
elections in the two states.
Let me now present more in-depth details of what
transpired in Rivers and Akwa Ibom on Saturday, and why
the elections in the two states cannot stand.
RIVERS STATE
•It is clear that the script for the distortion of the Rivers
elections was written by the Presidency and executed by
the PDP, the police and militants
•As you would recollect, our party’s chapter in Rivers had
written a petition complaining of the crass partisanship of
the Rivers State Commissioner of Police in the Presidential
and National Assembly Elections held on the 28th of
March. Because of this petition, the Inspector-General of
Police (IGP), Mr. Suleiman Abba, posted three
Commissioners of Police from the Force Headquarters to
oversee the April 11th Governorship and House of
Assembly Elections in Rivers State.
•As soon as the President learnt of this development, he
directed the IGP to reverse the decision and instead
requested that AIG Tunde Ogunsakin be posted to oversee
the April 11th Elections in Rivers State
•As soon as electoral materials were distributed, the
Divisional Police Officer for Akuku Toru Local Government
Area simply handed over the election materials for this
local government to the militants. Upon learning of this
development, AIG Ogunsakin ordered that the materials
should be recovered and handed over to the Electoral
Officer for the Local Government within the next hour.
•Irked by AIG Ogunsakin’s directive, the Presidency ordered
him to leave Rivers State within 6 hours and a pliant
replacement was asked to take over from him.
•From then on, unimaginative terror was unleashed on the
electorate, in particular on APC members and supporters. It
was a straight fight between the police, the militants and
the PDP on the one hand and the APC on the other hand.
•Contrary to the directive from INEC that Card Readers be
used for the elections, the machines were discarded in
Rivers. This is why the voter turnout for Rivers, as
announced by INEC for Rivers, stood at more than 75 per
cent, compared with the national average of between 25
and 35 per cent.
•Gentlemen, because of these and other anomalies, we
hereby unequivocally demand for the cancellation of the
Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers
State.
AKWA IBOM STATE
•The APC fully supports the demand by its chapter in Akwa
Ibom for the immediate cancellation of the Governorship
and House of Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom.
•Our position is based on the fact that elections in most
parts of the state were not conducted according INEC
guidelines.
•Election materials were not supplied to most of the polling
units in all the three senatorial districts.
- In former Governor Victor Attah’s ward in Ibesikpo
Asutan, three contiguous polling units did not receive
election materials.
- In the most of the polling units in Oruk Anam, which is the
home local government area of Atuekong Etiebet and Chief
Soni Udom, Director-General of the APC Governorship
Campaign Organisation, most of the polling units did not
receive election materials.
- Election materials were also not supplied to most polling
units in Itu, Ibiono Ibom, Ikot Ekpene, Esisien Udim, Uyo,
Eket, Abak, Nsit Ibom, Etinan, Esit Obolo, Ibeno, Nsit Attai,
Ikono, Ini.
•In areas where polling materials were received, hordes of
deadly armed thugs, escorted by men in Nigeria Police and
Army uniforms, stormed the polling units and carted away
the election materials midway into the accreditation
process.
- For instance in Ndiya ward 3, unit 004 in Nsit Ubium,
which happens to be the polling unit of our governorship
candidate, election materials were supplied but thugs led by
the Special Assistant to the Governor on Security, retired
Capt. Iniobong Ekong, invaded the place and took away all
the election materials. The thugs were later traced to the
house of Capt. Ekong, where the election materials were
recovered. An inventory of the recovered materials showed
that the number of the ballot papers had reduced from
1,571 to 450. The polling officer could not account for the
differential. Even so, the Divisional Police Officer of Nsit
Ubium later stormed the place and took away the remaining
materials.
•In a meeting with APC Governorship Candidate, Mr.
Umana Okon Umana, the electoral officer of Nsit Ubium
local government admitted that the election process in the
area was marred by security failure, which allowed PDP
thugs to hijack election materials and take them to private
homes for thumb-printing.
•Similarly, invasion of polling units and snatching of ballot
materials took place in other polling units in Uyo Senatorial
District, Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and Eket Senatorial
District.
•In addition to the failure to supply election materials to
polling units and the snatching of ballot boxes, the elections
were marred by widespread violence, resulting in the
deaths of many people.
Here are instances of such unbridled violence, as related by
INEC staff, party agents and other citizens who saw most
of what happened.
- PDP thugs killed two of our members in Ibiono Ibom when
Bassey Albert invaded a RAC centre in the area with over
50 thugs to cart away ballot materials.
- The PDP thugs also killed one of our members in Nsit
Ubium.
- Three APC supporters were also killed Uyo.
- Yet another APC member was killed in Uruan.
- One more APC member was killed in Ini Local Government
Area. This was acknowledged by the Assistant Inspect
General of Police, Mr. Baba Adisa Bolanta, who was in
charge of elections in the state.
We have included here some links to pictorial evidence
showing the killings and other acts of violence that marred
the elections in Akwa Ibom State.
•In view of the widespread failure by INEC to supply
election materials to polling units in most parts of Akwa
Ibom, the rampant snatching of ballot boxes and the
bloodletting by PDP thugs that characterised the conduct of
the elections on Saturday, we as a party hereby call for an
outright cancellation of the elections.
We are vindicated that some local and international election
observers have also been very critical of the elections in the
two states, with some calling for an outright cancellation.
The leader of African Centre for Leadership Strategies and
Development, Mr Humphrey Bekaren, said in Port Harcourt
that the observers were shocked that INEC disregarded the
widely reported violent irregularities to begin the process of
declaring results in Rivers state.
He says: ‘’We request all lovers of democracy to join us in
calling for the outright cancellation of the phony
election.Unless this is done, we would have sown the seed
that could eventually grow into providing a shade of fear
and death over us.’’
Also, The Situation Room, which is a coalition of Civil
Society Organisations working to ensure credible elections
in Nigeria, called on INEC to ‘’urgently take steps to
clinically scrutinise the final collated results from Rivers
and Akwa Ibom, as well as Abia, against the polling unit
results and make a reasoned judgment about them’’.
It said in its final statement issued a few minutes ago: "In
our view INEC should concern itself with possible negative
public perceptions of the elections in the three States and
ensure that it takes every necessary step to protect the
integrity of the elections in the States, as a way of
strengthening the trust of the electorate in the voting
process."
- All Progressives Congress CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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