Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that it does not involve the military in the result collation process scheduled for next week, saying that’s the state is not violent.
Governor Wike spoke at a meeting held in Port Harcourt, by INEC and stakeholders on the resumption of electoral activities to complete outstanding issues in 2019 general elections in the state.
He noted that the army was response for the violence that led to the suspension of the process on March 10, 2019.
Wike said: “The only way you can have peaceful elections is when the military is not made part of it. Let the army remove its hands from elections.
“When soldiers go to the collation room, people will resist them and they will shoot the people; that was how violence came. Else, was there violence at the polling units?
“Throughout my political career, I have not seen what army did in this election. And what stops INEC from naming those officers that caused all these (violence) as they did in 2016”?
Wike dismissed the reports that the state is violent, noting that Rivers is one of the most peaceful states in the nation.
“Rivers State is peaceful. If there is any violence, why are they drilling oil here? Nobody goes to drill oil in a troubled area. It is only when it comes to elections that they say the state is not peaceful,” he added.
Meanwhile, INEC has named Abua/Oduah, Ahoada West, Asari-Toru, Gokana, Khana and Degema local government areas, as the six areas, where it would collate and announce the results from April 2.
The Administrative Secretary, INEC, Rivers State, Elder Etim Umoh, who represented the INEC REC, Obo Effanga, disclosed this at the meeting, saying that the results of other 17 LGAs were intact in the commission’s strong room.
He noted that INEC was committed to conducting transparent elections in the state, adding that the collation would be completed as planned.
Also, the National Commissioner of INEC for Bayelsa, Edo and Rivers states, Barr. Agbamuche-Mbu, disclosed that the final supplementary guidelines on the collation would be released on Monday, adding that the guideline would be carried out as planned.
She appealed to people of the state to allow the process to be peaceful, adding that the commission would endeavour to be transparent.
However, the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Engr. Biokpomabo Awara, has addressed the press on the perceived bias on the side of the INEC.
Awara pointed out to the electoral umpire that it was wrong for it to leave collated results in the hands of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga, and expressed disappointment with the conduct of INEC.
He noted that INEC organised the meeting to fulfil the bidding of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), adding that the commission left its office to hold the programme in a building owned by a known PDP man in the state.
“By right, we would not have been here because a meeting like this should not be held in a private property owned by a PDP man,” Awara expressed.
He also alleged that INEC had prepared certificates-of-return for Governor Wike, 20 candidates of PDP and a candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, when the elections had not been completed.
“We have found out that this meeting is a point they want to use to harass those that are not in their good will. We raised a point that borders on fairness of the commission, a point about the custody of the results and at what point has affected the collation that brought LGAs collated to 17, but they shut us down.
“We have seen that INEC is bias. When you raise an issue that will not sing their glory it will shut you down. This is a show that the system has been compromised.
“We have it in good authority that certificates of return have already been prepared for Gov. Nyesom Wike, 20 PDP Assembly candidates and one SDP candidate.
“Our concern here is that INEC should obey the legal process. What they are doing here is just to please their pay master. We will meet them in court.”
The meeting was part of the processes outlined for the completion of the suspended governorship and state House of Assembly polls in the state.
Meanwhile, a melodrama played out when the governorship candidate of the Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA), Waribani Ezekiel, reminded the meeting that INEC has no right to continue the processes because it was in court.
Ezekiel noted that INEC was a party to the court matter and questioned the essence of the meeting in view of the litigation against the polls.
However, some participants who were not in support of the view expressed by Ezekiel took to protest, causing uproar and rowdiness, before the intervention of Barr. Agbamuche-Mbu.