Rivers PDP Condemns Army’s Confiscation Of Poll Results …Labels Act Coup D’etat

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as “treasonable” the alleged confiscation of the Rivers State governorship election results by soldiers and demands the immediate release to avert serious crisis in the state.
The PDP flayed what it called a subversive act by soldiers, “who seized and diverted the results to an Army barrack in Port Harcourt and calls on all lovers of democracy, to unite against this brazen attack on our democracy by the Presidency and All Progressives Congress (APC),” saying “such barefaced assault is only akin to a coup d’état and should not be allowed to stand.
In a statement issued, yesterday by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said, “Nigerians watched in bewilderment as soldiers, in the company of APC thugs invaded polling units in Rivers State, unleashed violence on voters, disrupted polling processes and hauled away electoral materials, just because the APC is not in the ballot, following its self-inflicted exclusion from the election.
“The use of soldiers to ambush the electoral process and confiscate results is an extreme scheme by the APC and the Presidency to enmesh the Rivers State governorship election in controversy, seeing that there is no way they can take away victory from the PDP.”
The statement continued: “Soldiers, allegedly under the directive of the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organization and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, invaded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices, waylaid INEC officials and forcefully took away collated results to the army barracks, where APC agents have been stationed to alter figures and destroy evidences of PDP’s victory.
“We want Nigerians to note that the APC is frustrated that it is not in the ballot in the Rivers State election and for that, it has resorted to violence, killings and heavy militarisation of the area, in the attempt to disrupt the electoral process, seeing that the PDP had already won.
“What the APC and its compromised soldiers fail to note is that the PDP already has valid documents of all the results as delivered from all the polling units where elections held across the state and that the figures are with all the stakeholders.
“Therefore, deploying soldiers to confiscate the results will not change the victory already recorded by our party in Rivers State.”
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (UK), yesterday, expressed concern over reports of military interference in the governorship and assembly elections in Rivers state held on Saturday.
The UK High Commission, in a tweet on its verified twitter handle, @UKinNigeria, noted that reports by its independent observers collaborated media reports of military interference in the electoral exercise.
The High Commission while noting that it was monitoring the situation very closely, called on relevant stakeholders to allow staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), do their job without harassment.
“We are extremely concerned by reports, including from @UKinnigeria observers, of military interference in the election process in Rivers State. Monitoring the situation closely. @inecng staff must be allowed to do their job in safety, without intimidation,” the UK High Commission wrote.
Reports of result confiscation are rife with the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing military personnel of doing the bidding of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to subvert the will of the people.