…Urges INEC to declare him winner of the polls
…rejects INEC suspension of results
…Says INEC has no right to suspend results where elections’ve been concluded
The
governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, in Rivers
state, Engr. Awara Biokpomabo, has rejected the suspension of the
state’s results by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
in the Saturday’s governorship and state houses of assembly elections
held in the state and other parts of the country
Biokpomabo, in a
statement on Monday, said INEC has no right to stop his victory at the
polls because, according to him, no provision of the electoral act
permits the commission to suspend elections that have already been
concluded. According to him, results from the areas that witnessed
violence, a basis upon which INEC suspended the results’ announcements,
had already been declared at the polling units and collation had begun
before the abrupt suspension of the process. He said, based on the
results already collated and declared from the polling units, that he
was in clear lead and was coasting to victory, haven won over 15 local
government areas. He listed the LGAs where he said results had already
been collated and declared before INEC suspended the process.
According
to the AAC candidate, “My Party, the African Action Congress (AAC) a
duly registered Political Party fielded candidates for the Governorship,
House of Representatives, Senate, and House of Assembly positions for
the General Elections held on the 9th day of March, 2019. The aforesaid
elections held as scheduled and proceeded up to collation stage in some
Local Government Areas, and in some other Local Government Areas,
results had already been collated and declared, before the Independent
National Electoral Commission suspended the remaining stages of the
election, which I was in clear lead and was coasting to victory. Some of
the unit results announced at the polling units in the Local Government
were collations were not concluded clearly before the suspension of the
processes show that I won over 15 Local Government Areas. The INEC
pleaded insecurity, violence, seizure of electoral materials by hoodlums
etc. as the reasons for suspending the remaining stages of the
Election. I reject the reason given by INEC.
This is because in
the Local Government Areas that were affected, voting had concluded,
results declared at the polling units and collation had begun before the
abrupt suspension of the process. The Commission does not have the
power under our Electoral Act to suspend elections that has already been
concluded. My agents at the field reported to me that the results had
already been declared in the under listed Local Government:
S/N LGA AAC PDP i.
PORT HARCOURT CITY LOCAL GOVERNMENT 11,866 42,190
AHOADA WEST 44,857 5,866
ELEME 27,712 4,436
ASARI-TORU 18,834 2,239
AKUKU TORU 57,815 5,696
IKWERRE 96,663 7,554
OYIGBO 32,026 8,652
TOTAL 289,773 76,633
The
Local Government Areas collations were ongoing were: Opobo/Nkoro
Abua/Odual iii. Okirika iiii. Ogu/Bolo Khana Degema vii. Tai viii.
Obio/Akpor Gokana Bonny Ahoada East xii. Omuma xiii. Andoni xiiii. Etche
Emohua xvi. Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni The suspension of the elections by INEC
was done to give respite to candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), who was trailing behind, frustrate my victory.
My party
went into these elections against an umpire dangerously skewed in favour
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Resident Electoral
Commission, all the Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers,
Heads of Department in the Rivers, Offices of The Commission were all
working for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. No wonder
when they saw that I was leading and would eventually win the election,
they raised a false alarm to the Headquarter of the Commission and
misinformed them that there was widespread violence and seizure of
electoral materials. We have on good authority the following facts:
i.Every Local Government Council Chairman in Rivers State pays the sum
of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) to the Electoral Officer assigned to
his Local Government and other sums of money to other electoral
personnel; ii.The Resident Electoral Commissioner was bought a house
for in Maitama Area of Abuja by the Governor of Rivers State, who
incidentally is the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP); and iii.
The Administrative Secretary of the Rivers
State office of the Commission was paid the sum of Three Hundred
Million (N300,000,000) Naira as inducement to secure 100 percent posting
of the Ad-hoc staff list in favour of the PDP. To justify the financial
inducement given to him, the said Administrative Secretary did not only
ensure that the posting of the Ad-hoc staff overtly favoured the PDP
but he also got carried away to the extent that he even included the
names of well known relatives of some PDP candidates and chieftains in
the list.
On his part the State Resident Electoral Commisioner
(REC) on the eve of the election replaced most of the ad-hoc workers
which were already published on the Commission’s notice boards with the
names of card carrying members of the PDP. For instance, in the
following Local Government Areas, the under listed persons were suddenly
deployed as Local Government Collation Officers: i.Emohua ——- Dr.
Peter Medee a card carrying member of the PDP ii.Khana ——– Mr.
Gbenekanu Ledornu who is both a card carrying member of the PDP and the
younger brother of Dr. Barr Mpigi (a Senatorial Candidate of the PDP)
was appointed Returning Officer for Khana LGA. The said Mr. Gbenekanu
Ledornu has just completed course work on his Ph.D programme.
He
is not yet a Lecturer not to talk of been a Senior Lecturer, yet Elder
Etim John conniving with Mr. Oboe Efaga appointed him Returning Officer
for Khana LGA. Iii.Tai: Prof. Patrick Mmon a card carrying member of
PDP The said State Resident Electoral Commissioner has not been able to
conclude any election in Rivers State since he took over the office. You
will all recall that the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, after
suspending the PHALGA Constituency 111 State House of Assembly rerun
election, recklessly abandoned that election process since August 2018
until date. The AAC will not again allow the State Resident Electoral
Commissioner Mr. Oboe Efaga and INEC to subvert a free and fair
elections solely because it was obvious to them that their preferred
candidate was losing the election.
It should be noted that
during the National Assembly rerun election in Rivers State in 2016,
Governor Wike stormed the Rivers East Senatorial District Collation
Centre at the Port Harcourt City Local Government Council secretariat
Port Harcourt in the same manner he stormed the Obio Akpor Local
Government Collation Centre yesterday the 9th day of March, 2019 and
forced the Senatorial Collation Officer to declare Sen. George Thompson
Sekibo as the winner. At the Emohua Local Government Area, the Electoral
officer absconded with ALL the sensitive election materials and ran to
the INEC Head of Offices in Port Harcourt, pleading insecurity while the
atmosphere was calm at the INEC office in Emohua. Obio/Akpor and Emohua
Local Government Areas perhaps were the only 2 Local Government
Areas
that the collation process were disrupted. The said disruptions were
caused by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party himself.
Suspending the said election on the ground of violence will amount to
the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party benefiting from his own
wrong. In the light of the forgoing facts, I make the following demands:
i.That the results already declared at the aforesaid Local Government
collation centres should be accepted; ii.That INEC should declare me
Engr. Awara Biokpomabo of the African Action Congress (AAC), the winner
of the 09-03-2019 Governorship election in the state; iii.The State
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mr. Oboe Efaga should be
immediately redeployed for gross incompetence. The said State Resident
Electoral Commissioner has not been able to conclude any election in
Rivers State since he took over the office. The PHALGA Constituency 111
State Assembly election is a case in point.”
SOurce:- Vanguardngr
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