Tina Amanda
The Governorship Candidate of the National Rescue Movement(NRM) Party in Rivers State, Sobomabo Jackrich, has rejected the result of the March 18 governorship election declared by INEC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Tuesday, March 21, declared Siminalayi Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the just concluded Governorship election held in Rivers with 302,614 votes.
Jackrich disclosed this in a briefing read by the Party Spokesperson, Chetam Nwala, to Newsmen in Port Harcourt.
Jackrich said NRM condemns the election process as irregularities, vote buying, thuggery, intimidation of voters and alleged killing of voters in some parts of the state by desperate politicians marred it.
According to him, the attack and killing of people during the election was a direct attack on the democracy of the country, while alleging that voters were flogged, brutally injured and molested in some parts of the states during the exercise.
He also alleged that a particular political party in the state made a town cry through their traditional rulers, warning the residents not to come out to vote if they would not vote for a particular party in the state.
Jackrich said the violence against voters and other political parties during the election was overwhelming enough to cancel the election with an alleged compromise by some ad-hoc staff of INEC and security agents.
He also alleged that Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines were distributed at some polling units, and ballot boxes were catered away.
He alleged further that some ad-hoc staff refused to upload results at the portals, and some BVAS machines were without SIM cards.
“Having outlined all the violent acts that took place during this election, we, therefore, declared that we do not accept the outcome of the elections as it falls short of the minimum acceptable standards of a democratic election anywhere in the world.
“We have also lost faith in the electoral empire to deliver free, fair and credible elections where the popular will of the people will decide the faith of our state; we, therefore, declare a vote of no confidence in the Commission.
“We call for an Independent panel of inquiry to investigate the Independent National Electoral Commission and all the officers to weed out bad eggs in the Commission as a deliberate effort to sanitize our democracy”.
He said the Electoral body would be trustworthy in the country if the bad eggs were weeded out of the system.
He also called on International bodies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and all lovers of democracy to condemn the act of impunity and sue for the right thing to be done.
“We also called on the security agencies to investigate the violence that marred the election and bring the perpetrators to book”.
He affirmed that the party would remain resolute in the quest to rescue the state to become a better Rivers State within the ambit of the law.
