Results Collation: ‘inec Unfair To Rivers People’

The Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not fair to the people of Rivers State by delaying the electoral process till April.
This is as the State Chairman of the Civil Society Organisation said INEC seems confused in the manner it was handling the electoral process in the state, especially going by the scheduled date for collation and announcement of results and subsequent postponement to April.
CLO chairman in Rivers State, Sotonye George who stated this while speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt said the organisation is not comfortable with the new timeline given by the INEC to conclude the election.
He said, “It is important that why INEC has taken decision in other states that have not completed their elections, INEC should not prolong Rivers State date of elections and declaration of results.
“Fixing 13th of April as supplementary elections is very much unfair and too long. It is unnecessary keeping this thing will only generate heat and tension in Rivers State.
“Again, the people will look at it that they want to create a lacuna of leadership in Rivers State,” he said.
Similarly, the State Chairman, Civil Society Organisation, Inefaa Georgewill advised the INEC to announce the already collated results and conduct a rerun in areas where the election was not free and fair.
According to Georgewill, “INEC should go ahead and announce the ones that have been done and possibly do a rerun in areas where they feel where violence was recorded or where the process was not free or fair.
“But for INEC to put the whole election process on hold in the first instance and reschedule it for another date and now moved again to 2nd 5th April seems that the INEC is confused in terms of what it should do.
“For us (civil Society) INEC should not be a Tribunal unto itself. They should go ahead and do the proper thing by announcing the original results so that anyone who is not comfortable can approach the Tribunal to seek redress legally,” he said. 

Dennis Naku