Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Popular Niger Delta rights activist, Sir Opunabo Inko-Tariah, has revealed that the people of Rivers State voted massively for the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the presidential election conducted on Saturday, February 25, 2023, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Sir Opunabo Inko-Tariah, who hails from the Kalabari extraction of Rivers State, however, expressed dismay that government officials in the state used all manner of violence such as intimidation, raiding of polling units and ballot box snatching to rig the election in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on Rhythm 93.7 FM on Monday morning in Port Harcourt, Sir Inko-Tariah said: “Rivers people actually voted massively for the Labour Party and the PDP. We saw where government officials raided, invaded the polling units, threatened persons, made away with ballot papers and even the BVAS.
“This is not a true reflection of the results. The election was rigged in Rivers State, Imo State and in so many other states.”
He said that INEC had no reason to disappoint Nigerians by conducting a shabby election, given the huge logistics support it received from the federal government.
He accused the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmud Mohammed, and his officials of being compromised to engage in such ignoble manipulation of the presidential election results.
“INEC officials, especially the chairman, are compromised because they had enough money, about N36 billion. And even when the INEC chairman complained of lack of fuel, NNPC supplied him fuel for logistics; CBN released the money. But what the INEC chairman gave to us is the worst election.”
The rights activist said the Buhari government’s condonation of such electoral malpractice by INEC is a reflection of its weakness, maintaining that it has permanently destroyed the president’s reputation.
He declared that Nigerians would not accept the outcome of this bad electoral legacy of the Buhari administration.
“As for Muhammadu Buhari, if this is the legacy you want to bequeath to Nigerians, we vehemently reject it.
“This election is the final nail on the coffin of his cataclysmic leadership. The whole eight years of Buhari’s government is a shame, a disgrace to Nigeria and Nigerians and to governance, and we pray that we will never, ever have such a leader again,” he said.
