INEC Blames Nigerian Army And Thugs As Causes of Election Disruption In Rivers State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has blamed the Nigerian Army and armed thugs for disrupting the March 9 governorship and state house of assembly elections in Rivers State.
This is even as Naija News reports that the commission, yesterday sacked four of its collation officers who served during the March 9 governorship election, following their alleged partisanship.
The INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said this midnight in a statement.
According to him, the commission on March 10 suspended all electoral processes in Rivers after it found out that there was widespread disruption of collation of results of the elections and subsequently set up a Fact-Finding Committee to assess the situation and report back within 48 hours.
He said the commission met on the 15 March, considered the report of the committee and established that the elections took place in most of the polling units and results were announced.
“That the results from 17 Local Governments out of 23 are available and are in the Commission’s custody; that the Declaration and Returns for 21 State Constituencies out of 32 were made prior to the suspension; that collation centres were invaded by some soldiers and armed gangs resulting in the intimidation and unlawful arrest of election officials thereby disrupting the collation process,” Okoye said.
He said the commission was displeased with the role played by some soldiers and armed gangs in Rivers disrupting the collation process and attempting to subvert the will of the people.
He also noted that the commission will engage the security agencies at national level and the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee at the state level to demand neutrality and professionalism of security personnel in order to secure a peaceful environment for the completion of the elections.
He said the commission will on Wednesday issue detailed timelines and activities for the completion of the election.
See the statement below
Press Statement On Rivers Governorship Election pic.twitter.com/MQvnvzVGHC
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) March 16, 2019
source https://www.naijanews.com/2019/03/16/river-state-inec-to-set-up-security-agencies-ahead-of-supplementary-elections/
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