Five political parties namely; The Peoples Progressives Alliance, Democratic Alliance, Labour Party, All Progressives Democratic Alliance and Mega Progressives Party, have raised alarm over the activities of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, in the conduct of the Local Government Council elections.
Chairmen of the political parties in a communique read on their behalf by the chairman of the All Progressives Democratic Alliance, Warigbani Ezekiel, said; “In the history of the conduct of election in Nigeria, especially in Rivers State, it is a constitutional right for every political parties and their agents to sight the non sensitive and sensitive materials before distributing same to the various local government areas.
“But it is sad to note that RSIEC distributed these materials with impunity to the various local government areas without the consent of any political parties and their agents, thereby creating vacuum for suspicion.
“It is unfortunate that the same RSIEC violated almost all the sections of the guidelines, especially section 7 page 10 of the RSIEC guidelines that stipulate that political parties will be eligible for grant fixed by the commission for the purpose of conducting their primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2018 local government area elections, which was completely violated .
“And having treated us abysmally, none of us are going to boycott the elections because we have candidates across board. But that RSIEC must do the right thing. RSIEC must respect the laws because we are interested in the welfare of the state”.
