Opposition Parties Want RSIEC Investigated

The Opposition Political Parties in Rivers State have vowed to take legal actions to ensure that monies allegedly owed them by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) were recovered.

The Political parties which spoke under the aegis of Association of Fontline Political Parties in Rivers State alleged that RSIEC was owing each of the political parties balance sum of N3 million out of the N8 million promised by the Commission during the 2011 Local Government Election as it had only remitted N5 million to the account of each of the member poltical parties.

It further alleged that the Commission was also yet to remit the sum of N2 million promised each of the parties for participation in the Degema Local Government Area Council election in the state months after the council election was over.

A document presented by the association at a press briefing in Port Harcourt and made available to The Tide disclosed that despite repeated letters requesting  for audience with the Commission, the chairman, Prof. Nimi Briggs and his commissioners had continued to rebuff every move made by the body for a round table discussion aimed at amicable resolution of the lingering  problem.

The statement which was signed by chairman of the association, Prince Uchechukwu Ichenwo and Secretary, Johnbull Obrasua said, “the briefing has become imperative in view of our obligation to the present and future generations of Rivers people and to also unearth the moral and financial lapses in the RSIEC.

The association attributed the poor performance of its members in the past council elections to the unwillingness of RSIEC to release funds meant for them for participation in the elections and appealed to His Excellency Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to institute an independent inquiry to investigate various crises that has rocked the state Independent Election Commission RSIEC in recent times.

Chris Oluoh