Rivers: LP Kicks Over Suspected Electoral Graft
2 min read
Gift EREBAH
National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to cancel elections in some parts of Rivers State.
Despite assurances by the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies, there have been reports emanating from Rivers State during the conduct of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, that the voting process in the state was disrupted by political thugs believed to be from the state government.
The thugs found their way to most of the polling units and collation centers and were accused of taking away election materials, result sheets, manipulated the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) machines and uploaded fake results in the election portal.
Abure said“we took particular note of incidences in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro and several other areas where Labour Party was clearly leading in virtually all the polling units with very wide margins.
“Nigerians went into this election based on the assurances by INEC that the deployment of BVAS was a perfect antidote to electoral malpractices in Nigeria.
“But what transpired across Nigeria, if allowed to stand is purely a betrayal of trust of millions of Nigerians by INEC.”
He also alleged that that security agents were used to snatch ballot papers, and some of these manipulations happened way into the night.
“INEC staff were intimidated by these thugs in connivance with military personnel and police officers who were deployed to protect them, into doing their bidding and were forced to manipulate the BVAS. We demand that INEC investigate these atrocities against Nigerian voters by the political class.
“We are therefore asking that INEC should rise to the occasion and cancel all the unverified and manipulated results arising from the presidential and national assembly elections in parts of Rivers State, particularly in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo and Rumukoro amongst others,” he said.
