…Poised
To Resist Attempt By INEC To Declare Cancelled Re-run Election Results In Tai
LGA
The Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Rivers State
Chapter, Bro. Felix Obuah, has reaffirmed that the Party would resist any
attempt by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to declare results of the March 19, 2016, cancelled
Legislative Re-run elections in Tai Local Government Area of the State.
Bro.
Obuah, in a press statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media/Publicity,
Jerry Needam, said the move by INEC’s National Commissioner, Amina Zakari, to release the purported Tai Re-run
election result was a deliberate and calculated attempt to throw the State into
chaos thereby denying the people of the area their fundamental rights and
franchise.
The
Chairman, who stated that the subterranean moves to announce the cancelled Tai
LGA election was being orchestrated by the over ambitious Senator Magnus Abe
and Barry Mpigi, touted the duo that their actions amounts to ‘day dreaming’,
as the PDP and indeed Rivers people would resist it to the last.
Bro.
Obuah further warned that this evil conspiracy between Abe, Mpigi, the All
Progressives Congress and Amina Zakari
to subvert the will of the people would pose serious threat to the nascent
democracy which Nigerians are presently battling to nurture.
He
added that the PDP had raised serious and unequivocal objections, including
several petitions to the electoral umpire, INEC, warning on the desperation by
the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidates, Abe and Mpigi, to
compel the Commission to pronounce results for elections that were cancelled by
the same INEC.
For
the benefit of doubt, and to support our position, it would be recalled that
the same INEC had on March 20, 2016, in its press Statement duly signed by the
Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Aniedi A. Ikoiwak, titled, ‘Re:
Suspension of Elections in Etche and Asari-Toru
Local Government Areas,’ stated that:
“Further to our earlier
pronouncement on the suspension of the re-run elections in the 6 (six) Local
Government Areas of Khana, Bonny, Gokana, Andoni, Tai and Eleme following
disturbances and violence that impeded the electoral process in these parts of
the State, it has also become necessary to suspend the elections in Etche and
Asari-Toru Local Government Areas, for the same reasons.”
From
the above INEC statement, elections in the six LGAs were ‘impeded’, meaning the
electoral process, including distribution of materials, accreditation of
potential voters, voting, collation of votes, etc were hindered, obstructed,
and stopped from going ahead ‘following disturbances and violence leading to
the suspension of the elections in the areas’.
It
would therefore, amount to an outright contradiction by the same INEC to make a
u-turn now and go ahead to announce results that were not realized from any
election, as there was no such exercise in the area.
The
State PDP Chairman called on President Mohammadu Buhari to call INEC and their
collaborators in Rivers State to order to avoid plunging the State into
anarchy.
PDP
still insists that the APC and its candidates should test their claimed
popularity in a free and fair election by allowing INEC to do the proper thing
that would reflect the real choice of the electorate in the Rivers South-East
and indeed, other parts of the State.
In
the interest of our democracy, we appeal to INEC to particularly prevail on
Amina Zakari and her collaborators not to further destroy the image of the
electoral umpire, but to allow Rivers people decide who represents them in the
legislative Assemblies in the State and at the National level.
Signed:
Jerry Needam
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity
To The State PDP Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah
Friday August 19, 2016
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