All is now set for the conduct of the supplementary election in four local government areas of Gokana, Opobo/Nkoro, Ahoada West and Abua/Odual, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), tomorrow, to determine the remaining seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Consequently, the commission has assured that it was 80 per cent ready to conduct the supplementary election in four State Assembly Constituencies in Rivers State.
The INEC Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Rivers State, Mr Edwin Enabor, who gave the assurance while speaking with newsmen at the commission’s head office in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said that the sensitive electoral materials were inspected with the participating party agents at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Port Harcourt, last Wednesday.
He said that the distribution of materials to the affected constituencies had commence, yesterday.
According to Enabor, the commission will mainly use its permanent staff and some students of the University of Port Harcourt as ad-hoc staff to conduct the exercise.
“So far so good; we are almost at 80 per cent ready. We have done training for the ad hoc staff, particularly the supervisors, while training for Presiding and Assistant Presiding Officers are ongoing.
“We have done the stakeholders meeting. The security committee had met at the local government level where the supplementary election will hold,” he said.
The INEC head of voter education and publicity stated that the commission would make use of results transmitted to its national server and accreditation from the smart card readers.
He urged the electorate in the affected constituencies to be peaceful and allow INEC to conclude the conduct of the election in the state.
A statement by the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Barrister Festus Okoye, in Abuja, had earlier said that 261,683 registered voters are expected to participate in the exercise in 106 polling points, spread across 467 polling units in 45 wards of the affected local government areas.
The statement indicated that the decision to conduct the supplementary election in the affected areas follows a careful review of the March 9 State House of Assembly election in the state.
According to Okoye, “However, supplementary election will be held in the following areas on Saturday, April 13, 2019, in line with the timetable released by the commission: Gokana, Opobo/Nkoro, Ahoada West and Abua/Odual”.
He noted that in Gokana, 129, 086 registered voters would be expected to vote during the exercise in 219 polling units cut across 17 wards, while in Opobo/Nkoro, 7,344 registered voters are expected to vote in 20 polling units spread across five wards.
The INEC director of voter education also explained that in Ahoada West, 36,692 registered voters would vote in 47 polling units cut across 10 wards, while in Abua/Odual, 88,561 registered voters were expected to turn out to vote in 181 polling units cut across 13 wards in the local government area.
Justifying the decision, Okoye said that in Gokana, the election process was largely “disrupted”, thereby giving rise to the rerun while in Abua/Odual, INEC officials were not even allowed to “deploy” materials for the conduct of the exercise on March 9, and therefore, the need for supplementary election.
He further explained that the exercise was “inconclusive by reason of margin of lead” in both Opobo/Nkoro and Ahoada West, and insisted that supplementary election would be conducted in the two local government areas to determine who represents the state constituencies in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Okoye, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders in the state, especially the political parties, the security agencies, election observers, the media, to play statutory roles in ensuring the peaceful conduct of the exercise, while charging the electorate in the affected areas to turn out in their large numbers to vote candidates of their choice into the state legislative arm of government.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro. Felix Obuah has expressed delight that almost one week after the landslide victory of Governor Nyesom Wike as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), an unprecedented jubilation still pervades the length and breadth of the state.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, Obuah said the unrelenting jubilation was evidence of wide acceptability of Wike by the people of the state.
He said the reason that the post-election celebration has remained endless was because all efforts dissipated by those he called ‘evil forces’ to subvert the will of the people, had failed woefully.
The state PDP chairman observed that never in the history of the state had there been such singular occasion where all strata of the society, including farmers, market men and women, fishermen, civil servants, pensioners, religious groups and even members of the opposition political parties, in one accord, came out to rejoice over an electoral victory.
“How else could a people demonstrate total acceptability of a leader? How else could they express their love for that leader, a man that is passionate about the welfare of the people, a man who has defied every odd to prove that governance is possible? Rivers people have shown that the victory of Governor Wike is well deserved”, Obuah said.
He added that the jubilations also underscored the fact that Rivers State was indisputably a PDP state where no other political party was an option.
“What is happening in Rivers State is that Governor Wike’s re-election has triggered unending joy on everyone. He has touched lives as he used his first tenure to spread development to all the nooks and crannies of the state”, Obuah stated, charging all and sundry to give the governor their unalloyed support to enable him do more for the state in his second term.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana