Re-run elections: Rivers political warlords return to trenches
The announcement of December 10, 2016 date for the completion of the state and National Assembly re-run elections in Rivers State, no doubt, has revived the ceaseless political battle between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Both the PDP and the APC have continued to battle for the soul of Rivers since both Governor Nyesom Wike and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi parted ways before the 2015 general elections. While Wike and the PDP bigwigs are not ready to let go the control of state legislature, Amaechi and other APC key figures want to prove a point that their party cannot be underrated.
The Rivers re-run elections issue came back to limelight after the National Assembly’s directive to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fix date for the polls.
The Senate on November 2, 2016 gave INEC December 10 ultimatum to conduct pending National Assembly elections in Rivers and threatened to suspend its plenary if the electoral body failed to meet the deadline.
The upper chamber of National Assembly stated that it was unconstitutional for the state to remain without federal lawmakers for a long period.
The decision was taken after adopting a motion by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu, and co-sponsored by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume.
A similar motion, co-sponsored by Minority Leader, Leo Ogor and five others, had been tabled in House of Representative a day before that of the Senate.
Barely 24 hours after the Senate’s threat, the INEC fixed the December 10 date in a statement signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu.
But as soon as the new date was announced, the governor of Rivers State raised an alarm over what he described as fake electoral materials allegedly printed at a private printing press in Port Harcourt by the APC chieftains.
The governor, at a joint press conference he addressed alongside the state PDP leaders at the government house, Port Harcourt, claimed that a large volume of printed electoral materials for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate was burst at a private printing press located at Isiokpo street in Port Harcourt.
The governor, who displayed video clips of the fake printed electoral materials to reporters during the press conference, said he got wind of the fake materials which comprised of ballot papers and result sheets a long time ago, but waited for the appropriate time to burst the syndicate.
Wike said the purported fake ballot papers and other electoral materials were printed for all the polling units in the eight local government areas, where the re-run election would be conducted by INEC.
He accused the police of shielding those arrested over the fake electoral materials from being prosecuted.
The governor also accused the police of planning to destroy the evidence of fake electoral materials.
He said: “The police said there were pressures from Abuja not to prosecute the suspects. I called the Commissioner of Police and he told me that there were pressures from Abuja not to prosecute those arrested.
“They said the arrest and prosecution of the suspects will be very embarrassing to the federal government. Those arrested are relations and associates of the APC leader in the state. Their plan was to bring in the fake electoral materials at the collation centres and declare APC winner of the re-run election.”
He also accused INEC of conniving with the APC to rig the forthcoming re-run election, warned that the people of the state would resist any plot to rig the election.
After President Muhammadu Buhari charged both the police and the electoral body to ensure a violence free election in states with a warning that failure might affect the outcome of 2019 elections, Governor Wike quickly called on the police to adhere to President’s directives to ensure a violencefree election in both Ondo and Rivers states.
At a another press briefing in Port Harcourt yesterday, he further accused the police of conniving with the APC to free those arrested over the alleged fake ballot papers scandal.
He alleged that the matter, which was at the state police command, was transferred to the Zone 6 Command of the Nigerian police in Abuja so as to sweep the matter under the carpet.
But in a swift reaction, the APC in Rivers State on Thursday accused Wike of interfering with police investigation of those arrested allegedly printing fake INEC result sheets.
In a statement issued by the state party chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, in Port Harcourt, the APC described Wike’s position as misleading.
INEC, in its reaction, denied any relationship with the people arrested for allegedly printing election result sheets.
The INEC Secretary, Mrs Augusta Ogakwu, in a statement dated November 8, stated that the allegation of complicity in the illegal printing of electoral materials was of great concern to the commission.
Ogakwu said the commission was liaising with the security agencies, particularly the police, to unravel the circumstances surrounding the fraudulent activity.
INEC stressed its commitment to ensuring that a thorough investigation was carried out.
The commission appealed to all stakeholders in Rivers State to maintain temperate language as it prepared to conclude the elections, recalling that INEC lost a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member and its Khana Local Government Area Office was burnt during the previous attempt to complete the polls.
It stated that the commission would not accept false assertions that have the potential of undermining public confidence its activities.
INEC assured all stakeholders that preparations for the elections scheduled for December 10, are in top gear.
The suspended elections in Rivers State have drawn a battle line between the PDP and the APC as the leadership of both political parties in the state has continued to engage one another in a war of words.
The re-run elections in eight local government areas (LGAs) of Rivers State have brought INEC on collision course with critical political stakeholders in the state. The electoral body is facing a credibility challenge in the forthcoming re-run elections in the oil rich state as both the PDP and the APC have been criticizing the commission.
Both Governor Wike and the PDP leadership led by Felix Obuah had, on several occasions, raised the alarm over the alleged plot by both the APC and INEC to manipulate the outcome of the election.
One of the major issues in contention between the two political parties during the suspended poll is the declaration of Tai Local Government election result, where a large chunk of votes, totaling 34,000 were said to have been allocated to Senator Magnus Abe, the APC senatorial candidate for Rivers South-East senatorial district.
Tai Local Government was one of the councils, where INEC had suspended election on ground of violence. The commission had earlier cancelled the election and declared the result that emanated from it invalid. But later, INEC made a U-turn when its National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, during a visit to the state announced that the suspended Tai result remained valid.
While the APC considers the statement as a milestone towards coasting to victory, the PDP sees such move as a calculated plan by INEC to allocate unmerited votes to the APC candidate.
The PDP sent many correspondents to INEC headquarters in Abuja, expressing discontent over the matter. But the entreaties did not influence INEC to change its decision.
The party later obtained an injunction from a Port Harcourt High Court, which restrained the commission from declaring the suspended Tai election result.
Other local government areas (LGAs), where elections were suspended, are Andoni, Etche, Ikwerre, Oyigbo, Eleme and Gokana. The commission had, on several occasions re-scheduled the elections in the affected LGAs, to be cancelling them.
The INEC had fixed July 30 for the re-run polls. but few days to the scheduled date, the Bori office of the commission was razed down by unknown arsonists on July 22. Both the PDP and the APC traded blames over the incident. The commission announced the suspension of the July 30 scheduled election, citing insecurity.
Governor Wike has claimed the APC was afraid of the election because of his conviction that Rivers State is a PDP state.
Wike had argued that the inability of INEC to conduct the re-scheduled election had denied the state quality representation in the National Assembly. The state has only two representatives out of its eight slots in the House of Representatives. The two legislators are PDP members, while it has no representatives in the Senate. The three senatorial districts from the state were affected in the suspended election.
Both parties have taken their campaigns to the grassroots, appealing to voters on the need to vote for the party of their choice.