APC Petitions INEC Over Rivers Guber, Assembly Polls

The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has petitioned the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, over the litany of electoral malfeasance arising from the conduct of the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state last Saturday.
In a 12-page petition, signed by the state party Chairman, Dr Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, the APC demanded the immediate cancellation and rescheduling of the entire elections on the basis that they failed the test of standard election anywhere in the world.
The APC alleged the active collusion of security and INEC officials, which compromised the integrity of the process, the use of manual accreditation in most places where the polls managed to hold against INEC Chairman’s directive, the absence of result sheets in several polling units, the handover of ballot papers to PDP thugs in the presence of security men, among others.
“In direct contradiction of the directive of the INEC chairman that card readers most be used for the election, Mrs Gesila Khan, directed the electoral officers to ignore the card readers, and manually accredit voters. In more than 70 per cent of the polling units where there was any semblance of elections, the officials refused to utilize the card readers,” the APC claimed.
The party recalled a previous petition, in which it called for the transfer of Mrs Khan from Rivers State, shortly after the presidential and National Assembly elections, and called for the immediate redeployment of the resident electoral commissioner.
It also alleged financial inducement of INEC electoral officials by the PDP in order to enable them do the bidding of the party, saying that allowing such compromise to go unpunished would amount to subverting the electoral process.
The APC also noted the widespread violence, killings of APC supporters, intimidation of voters and hijack as well as snatching of ballot boxes and papers in Abua/Odual, Asari-Toru, Akuku-Toru, Okrika, Gokana, Tai, Khana, Obio/Akpor, Etche, Omuma, Degema, Ikwerre, Ahoada-East, Emohua, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Port Harcourt, among others, saying that such acts did not only disenfranchise thousands of voters, who ordinarily would come out to vote, but also forced APC members to stay in-doors, thereby facilitating rigging by the PDP.
The APC, therefore, reminded the INEC chairman that, “Rivers State has had its undue share of violence. It would be unfair to Rivers people to foist upon them an unacceptable election result, which could lead to further violence, breakdown of law and order, and of course, needless loss of lives.
“Our people deserve a right to elect their leaders in a free and fair contest, and that is what we demand”, the party said.
The APC, therefore, requested the INEC “chairman, to passionately consider the above and to order the immediate cancellation of the April 11, 2015, governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State.
“In the interest of justice and fairness, we demand that a fresh election be scheduled to be conducted by a Resident Electoral Commissioner and Electoral Officer, who in your esteemed opinion, are people of unquestionable integrity,” the APC appealed.