Politics
Opposition In Rivers, On Terminal Decline – Hon. Herbert-Miller
Hon. Herbert-Miller
Honourable
Damiete Herbert-Miller is the Rivers State Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation. Speaking with Opaka Dokubo in his office in Port Harcourt, he bared his mind on sundry issues in the polity including the withheld State Constituency results of DELGA and the ongoing restructuring effort of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the National level. Excerpts:
How do the people of Degema Local Govt. Area feel about the withholding of their house of Assembly Constituency Result by INEC?
Terribly disappointed, Degema people are terribly disappointed in INEC and the reason is obvious. The election was very peaceful, collations were made and declaration also made by one Mrs Ihuoma Ibekwe, I won’t forget her name, as the AEO, Degema. I do not know where it is written that after declaration the REC in the State will choose to withhold or confirm the declaration.
I think that the law is very clear in that anyone who has any issues with the declaration should head to the tribunal. So, Degema people are indeed disappoint in INEC on their handling of this matter.
Even though the candidate has gone to Court, are the people of Degema contemplating any other means of expressing their grievances?
Of course you know that the court is where anyone not satisfied with any process heads to. As it stands, any other measure outside going to the court to seek redress could amount to taking the law into your hands and Degema people know this too well as law abiding people. No Degema person would want this injustice redressed outside the ambit of the law. I think the candidate has done the most appropriate thing.
However, what is most surprising is that even as the candidate has taken INEC to court to release his certificate of return, APC and their candidate have also gone to court asking the court to prevail on INEC not to uphold his (the candidate of the PDP) victory but to issue the certificate of return instead. Logically, the APC and their candidate have also acknowledged that the candidate of the PDP, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo won the election.
Our contention is that INEC should issue Hon. Farah Dagogo his certificate of return and let the APC proceed to the tribunal to argue their case.
How does this absence of a representative in the State House of Assembly affect your people?
How can we go on without a representative? It is affecting us very badly because beyond the issue of representation, if anyone needs a letter of recommendation, that is the simplest service any representative renders to his constituents. As it stands now, the people of Degema Local Government Area have no one to render them that service.
Secondly, should anyone have something to bring to the notice of the government like communal issues, who will speak for the people? I am a commissioner but I can’t speak because my service area is the entire Rivers State. But the member representing the constituency is responsible to the constituency primarily because he was elected to do just that. So, it is an understatement to say that the absence of a representative for the people of Degema Local Government Area is affecting the people very badly.
How would you assess the performance of the Governor so far?
Sometime in February I went on tour to out stations under my ministry and of course you know that we’re the ones in charge of the deaf, the dumb and the blind. At the end of that tour I said something. I said that when I went to the Special School, the deaf have heard, the blind have seen and even the dumb have spoken that Governor Wike is working. It is as simple as that.
You don’t need to be told, go round Port Harcourt. Recall that on the 27th of May when the former governor was celebrating this birthday, he said that he would see where Governor Wike will get money to pay salaries, not to talk of money to do projects. Has he not been paying salaries? Is he not carrying out projects everywhere? Even Federal projects are not left out. Go and see what is happening to the Eleme Junction to Onne axis of the East/West Road. He has done it with Rivers’ money. Wike in short is a miracle worker.
How prepared is your Ministry to accommodate repentant cultists vis a vis the amnesty office established by the Governor?
This ministry actually has three rehabilitation centre. We have one at Iriebe where we accommodate the mentally challenged. We also have a rehabilitation centre at Borokiri where we have shut down at the moment for safety reasons. And then we have a modern, state-of-the-art rehabilitation camp at Okehi, so it’s not something we will have to task our heads on how to do.
Of course, you know that in this ministry, 90% of our staff are social workers and they are well equipped to handle rehabilitation cases. We’re fully prepared should we be required to shoulder that responsibility.
What is your task as a Ministry and How do you assess that task?
My ministry’s functions are spelt out and we operate within the law. Essentially, we provide social services to persons living with disability and to the needy generally. We take care of returnees and deportees. Beyond that we also take care of and rehabilitate repentant militants, rape victims, etc.
Recently we met with FIDA. Before FIDA we met with the Doctors Without Borders whose programme is centred on rape victims at the moment and we are partnering with them to set up a safe home for women and children who are affected.
At the moment we have the case of a little girl who was raped by her father and who eventually got pregnant and has a baby. We have just taken her and her baby in at the Children’s home, Borokiri.
It has to be understood that our ministry is a service ministry where you don’t see physical projects. The projects we carry out are mainly on human beings. That’s why many people fail to appreciate what we are doing. For instance, about two days ago I saw a youngman rolling on improvised means of mobility and I asked him to follow me. We got to the office and I handed him a wheel chair.
He could hardly contain himself with joy. If you go to the prison now, you will see a lot of juvenile inmates. They are our responsibility and where we accommodate them is the Remand Home.
If you go to our family Welfare unit, we handle more than 20 cases on a daily basis. We also take the responsibility of not only rehabilitating the mentally challenged but we also take the task of reuniting them with their families, sometimes outside the state, after a successful programme. Only a few months ago, we took somebody to Ogun State. At the moment we’re considering repatriating 10 young people to Cross River State to reunite with their families.
We need a lot of money to successfully run our programmes that includes giving assistance to the physically challenged as well we’re presently seeing one physically challenged through the University of Calabar. Of course government cannot carry this responsibility alone and that’s why we expect support and partnership from public spirited individuals and Corporate bodies.
Do you have confidence in the ongoing restructuring effort in the Peoples Democratic Party?
From 1998 when I joined the PDP until now, I have never lost confidence in the party. My confidence in the PDP can never be shaken. In a manner of speaking and at the risk of being misrepresented, I wish to say that it is after all blessing in disguise that the PDP allowed the APC to take poltical power at the federal level because today the emptiness of the APC has been exposed to the world.
Of course, Nigerians are wiser now and 2019 is as sure as the morning sun for the PDP to take back power in Nigeria. In terms of the economy, in what ways have they fared better? Everything they promised, has it not failed? Is the pump price of fuel now N40 as they said? Is the Naira now exchanging for one Naira to the US dollar? What is it they promised that they have delivered?
Of course, for as many as have left the PDP will come back because we will get stronger and stronger. Indeed, the results of the last elections in Rivers State is a testimony to the fact. In my particular village and ward, the leaders of the APC refused to show up during the elections because they know they were not on ground. Who will vote for them when all that they promised are collapsed? Their minister has nothing to lie about any more. They are on a terminal decline.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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