Rivers, Abia, Akwa Ibom Governorship Elections Questionable - CSOs

INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega

By Tobi Soniyi

Civil Society Organizations that monitored last Saturday's governorship and houses of assembly have said that the elections in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states were not credible and should not be allowed to stand.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Monday under the aegis of Civil Society Organisations' Elections Situation Room, the convener of the group and Chief Executive of Policy and Legal Centre (PLAC), Mr Clement Nwankwo said that to allow the elections in the three states to stand would amount to making a mockery of the electoral reforms introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said: "Situation Room is further concerned about the overall conduct of the elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states where there are good grounds to question the credibility of the elections results in both states. There are also concerns about Abia State, which recorded mutiple cases of electoral misconduct."
Nwankwo noted that the headquarters of INEC exercised poor or no control over states' resident electoral commissioners, few of whom he alleged compromised themselves in the conduct of the elections‎.
He said: "The Situation Room is concerned about the weak‎ oversight powers of the national headquarters of INEC over resident electoral commissioners and state INEC offices in the management and conduct of elections.
"This makes it easy for compromised RECs and other state level INEC officers to undermine the credibility of the election sometimes with reckless impunity."
He called on INCE to preserve the electoral materials especially the cards readers machines so as to compare the results of the elections with the actual voting.
‎The Situation Room also called on INEC to urgently take steps to scrutinise the final collated results from the three states (Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states) against the polling unit results and make a reasoned judgment about them.
He said: "In our view INEC should concern itself with possible negative public perceptions of the elections in the three states and ensure that it takes every necessary step to protect the integrity of the elections in the states, as a way of strengthening the trust of the electorate in the voting process."
The group also condemned the role played by prominent public political office holders and other politicians as well as some INEC officials in encouraging and actively taking part in organized misconduct and disorderly behaviour that violated the sanctity of the electoral process.
Situation Room also called for these people to be investigated with a view to prosecuting and sanctioning them under the law.
The group said that impunity continued to be part of the electoral process because no one was punished in the past for committing similar offences.

Culled from ThisDay newspaper