Brave Dickson
Worried by the alleged interference of the military in the February 23 and March 9, 2019 electoral process in Rivers State, some ex-agitators from the state have warned the military never to repeat same in subsequent elections in the state.
A cross section of the ex-agitators residing in Port Harcourt who spoke with our correspondent on off records said they are not happy with the role of the military in the 2019 general elections in the state.
“We will not tolerate this undue interference of the military in Rivers State elections next time. We condemn the role they played and we will be prepared next time to resist them.
“They (military) left their duty of providing security to actively get involved in election rigging.
“We want to use this medium to sound it loud and clear that on no account should soldiers militarize our state again, all in the name of election.
*For those politicians whose job is to provide fake military uniforms for criminals during elections to disturb the peace of our state, their days are numbered,” they said.
The just concluded national and state elections which saw the re-emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nyesom Wike were characterised by violence occasioned by armed men in uniforms.
The fate of some legislative candidates and governorship candidates of Rivers State were determined this month (April) following the suspension of results collation of the state governorship and legislative elections by INEC on March 10.
Reason for the suspension was traceable to reports of an alleged invasion of the state election collation process by soldiers.
The commission however resumed the collation process on April 2 after it held a stakeholders’ meeting with some political parties whose candidates were in attendance as Well as some representatives of relevant bodies.
