Opposition parties in Rivers accuse INEC of plans to rig elections in PDP’s favour

Opposition political parties contesting for the governorship polls in Rivers State on Saturday, March 18, 2023, have alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) intends to influence the election results in favor of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole; National Rescue Movement (NRM), Sobomabo Jackrich; Action Alliance (AA), Dawari George; Accord (A), Dumo Lulu-Briggs; and African Democratic Congress (ADC), Tonte Ibraye are among the candidates and political parties who made the allegation.

In a joint news conference on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, the opposition candidates claimed to have discovered a well-orchestrated scheme by some top INEC officials in Rivers State to tamper with the governorship and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday.

Tonye Cole of the APC briefed journalists and claimed that INEC had intended to carry out the conspiracy in collusion with officials of the State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the upcoming elections in favor of PDP candidates in the relevant polls.

Also, they have demanded that the terms of the Electoral Act of 2022 and the INEC regulations be strictly followed in the conduct of the next elections in the state.

Cole further alleged that the ruling government wants to use the instrumentality of the 23 Local Government Area Council Secretariats serving as LGA Collation Centres by the INEC, to rig and manipulate the results of the goverrnorship and House of Assembly elections.

He claimed: “That governor has instructed all LGA executive chairmen, as the chief security officers of their respective Local Government Areas, to carry out what he calls “Operation No Mercy” on every other party agent. The council chairmen are to ensure those agents representing their parties’ interests do not have access to the Collation Centres.”

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According to the governorship candidates, the ruling government has also assured INEC officials of their safety provided they comply with the PDP agents to manipulate the process before taking it out to the State Collation Centre.

In view of the foregoing, the governorship candidates have urged that INEC and every relevant authority should stop government officials from accessing the collation centres.

They said, “That only persons who are party agents according to law and designated INEC officials should have access to the Collation Centres at the Ward, LGA and State levels only party agents be allowed access to the collation centers.

“That on no account should Governor Wike be exempt from the restrictions of access to collation centres in accordance with the law. Moreover, as his presence at the Obio/Akpor Council Collation Centre in the last and previous elections compromised the process and cast doubts on the credibility and ability of INEC to conduct free, fair, and credible elections in the State.

“That activities of INEC officials and Ad-Hoc Staff should be closely monitored as there is connivance between some INEC officials and officials of the Rivers State Government to rig and compromise the process in favour of the PDP.

“That we want peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in the State where the will of the people will not be subverted as we saw during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.”

Thus, in order to protect the electoral process and the upcoming elections in Rivers State, the opposition governorship candidates urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct security forces to step up surveillance on INEC and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

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