A university teacher and Co-convener, Initiative for Credible Elections, Dr. Sofiri Peterside has criticised some Rivers elders over a letter they wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari for him to intervene in the election crisis in Rivers State.
The Tide recalls that the elders in the said letter said that ‘Mr. President should note that INEC going ahead to collate and announce results of 17 areas unnamed local government after two weeks of suspension of electoral process could precipitate public disorder’.
The letter also said that ‘no moral justification to continue with the suspended electoral process, as the outcome will be prejudicial and contentious’, among others.
But Dr. Peterside while appearing as guest on a radio programme in Port Harcourt monitored by The Tide said the elders letter calling for the intervention of the President is belated, accusing them of failing to speak up before the elections, like other organizations and groups who had called for peaceful polls in the crude oil and gas rich state.
This is as Peterside, who is a senior lecturer, Department of Sociology at the University of Port Harcourt called on the electoral body to be open and douse tension by providing the necessary information in the public domain and act within the dictates of the law
He stated, “I read the letter by the elders in the newspapers. My position on it is that the letter is belated. These elders ought to have spoken on the road to the elections. Every organization and civil society were calling for peaceful elections and the elders of this state refused to speak.
“At the point in time when we were already in crisis, even when people were being killed, the elders also lose their voices. So this kind of intervention if you ask me is very belated.
“What is required actually is for INEC to act within the ambit of the law. What is it that the law has said? Why should INEC give an announcement and tell citizens of this country, including Rivers State people that by Wednesday (last week) details of what is going to happen will be made public.
“Journalists went to INEC office in Port Harcourt and they did not get any information. They (newsmen) were not allowed entry. At the national level, no information. And when you do that kind of thing is that you create tension and people are soaked in tension,” Peterside said.
The University don stated further, “So the right thing to do is to douse this tension by stating clearly and keep the citizens informed. I am aware and we have read that there were cases in court and the court declined to grant the ex parte motion by saying that INEC be notified and let them return on the 25th.
“So INEC needs to keep the citizens informed of what is happening otherwise when you leave people in that state when there is no information, anything can happen. So there is need to douse the tension in the state.
“From the analysis of what the elders want even though they did not come out to say so clearly. My own understanding and reading of their statement is that the election be cancelled. Now what I support is that need not to keep that information because they said that they have reports of about 17 LGA’s in their kitty.
“We need to know those LGA’s so that the citizens can begin to know whether these LGA’s are listed amongst those LGA’s where men in uniform actually intervened and took results away or where political thugs actually intervened and hijack electoral materials.
“So what is required is to put that kind of information in the public domain. Perhaps INEC is hiding under the cover that election results need to be announced by INEC and it should be a process when they are announcing the results.
“But I think that that information should be in the public domain so that people will know which local governments are these. And so if these are local government where these kind of situation never took place, collation and all that, then people should come out and say so. I think that is the way forward in this process. Openness,” the university don admonished.

Dennis Naku