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Wike Clears Air On Accusations Against INEC, Police

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has been defending his allegations of alleged plot by the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to rig … Continue reading Wike Clears Air On Accusations Against INEC, Police


Wike Clears Air On Accusations Against INEC, Police

Wike Clears Air On Accusations Against INEC, PoliceRivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has been defending his allegations of alleged plot by the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to rig the forthcoming re-run polls in the state.

The governor who explained that he is not out to incite the public against the police and INEC, said he chose to make his findings known in order to forestall the breakdown of law and order during the polls.

He was speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

According to him, his discontentment is as a result of past experiences.

He said conducting elections is not only because you have announced a date but you have to prove to those who are anticipating, that it would be free and fair.

“Yes INEC has announced that the election would hold on December 10, but there have been certain issues raised on whether INEC would want to heed to the directive of Mr President to ensure that the election will be violence free and so that is why we are worried, because of certain factors we have seen on ground.

According to him, the electoral body “has been unable to answer certain questions raised before, during the March 19 rerun.

“How are we sure you are going to be impartial? Also, INEC has said that for the Assistant Presiding Officers, that they took the list from the universities; who compiled the list from the universities?, he questioned.

The governor believes that the so-called list of university students is only a fraud, and has caused them to raise eye brows on the authenticity of the re-rerun elections.

He claimed that a number of names included on the list were clearly not students of the University of Port Harcourt as initially stated by INEC.

For this reason, he alleged again that since the electoral body could not answer the questions then it clearly shows that it was compiled by the interested party and handed over to INEC, who according to him did not make the matter open to all parties from the onset.

Wike further stated that “our own position is to help INEC to have a free and fair election and therefore, when we raise an allegation, it is for you to investigate seriously and assure those who have made that allegation that yes there were some problems, or there were no problems, but not for you to say, it is not true”.

Chairman of the Rivers APC, Davies Ibiamu in a statement earlier, had wondered why the governor who had been labelled the king of rigging by some persons, would be raising unfounded accusations against all and sundry over plans to rig the rerun elections.

The statement went on to state that the governor has sinister motives for wanting to know the security architecture of opponents and based on his utterances in the past two weeks, should be checked by all relevant agencies.

The party also condemned what it called the cheap blackmail of its candidates and members by the governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the run up to the polls.

INEC on the other had has given an assurance that the concluding part of legislative election in Rivers State, would be conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.