As investigations into the Rivers-rerun election gather momentum, accusing fingers have been pointed at security operatives.
Governor Nyesom Wike
A report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
on the December 10, 2016 rerun legislative elections in Rivers State has
indicted security operatives who participated in the poll.
The report of the administrative enquiry into the rerun election,
set up by the Commission, detailed how security operatives engaged in
snatching of electoral materials, intimidation of voters and
deliberately refusal to accompany electoral officers to their duty
posts.
Security operatives were accused of having actively participated in
electoral offences. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had written a
petition against security agencies. With the INEC report, he has been
vindicated.
The INEC report said: “As part of preparations for the
elections, the entire 23 Electoral Officers (EOs) in the state were
replaced with new ones from Plateau, Anambra and Oyo states. They all
reported in Rivers State on November 28, 2016 and were posted
accordingly to the local government areas.
“Reposting of EOs was rather late, making it difficult for them
to understand the environment and prepare adequately for the elections…
“One of the low points of the Rivers rerun elections of
December 10, 2016 was the flagrant intervention of security operatives
in the process. This was widely identified by staff of the Commission
and independent observers alike, as one major factor that led to the
failure of the process in some local government areas. There were too
many security agencies involved in the process, outside the framework of
the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
“It was not clear whether many of them were acting as part of
their various organisations or as groups and individuals serving
political interests. Most importantly, many of them showed profound
political partisanship.
“Ironically, security operatives, who were expected to protect
the process, turned on it. There were reported cases of wilful
obstruction of the process by security operatives, including snatching
of materials and intimidating voters. In other cases, they refused to
accompany and protect men and materials for elections.
“But, the most mind-boggling were cases of hostage-taking,
hijack of materials and physical attacks on INEC officials perpetrated
by security operatives. Of singular note was a certain policeman named
Akin Fakorede, who ostensibly is a commander of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS), in Rivers .
“Fakorede first tried to lure INEC staff to travel with him
from Port Harcourt to Emohua LGA, under the pretext of enabling them to
collate results.
“But, for the intervention of National Commissioners, we
suspect that he would have put our staff in harm’s way. When he failed
in his initial bid, he stalked the INEC officials to the collation
centre in Port Harcourt and physically assaulted Dr. C. Odekpe and Mrs.
Mary Tunkayo. In fact, Dr. Odekpe ended up with a gash on his head and
both spent days at the Air Force hospital in Port Harcourt.
“The security situation was worsened in some areas by the
activities of political thugs and militants. Etche, Akoku-Toru and
Emohua are examples of areas where both the security operatives and the
militants caused serious mayhem…”
On alleged partisanship of INEC staff, the report said “there
were very credible allegations that members of staff at the INEC office
in Port Harcourt were split between the two main political parties in
the state, namely, the ruling PDP and the APC.
The report stated: “It was clear that confidential information,
including documents, was routinely leaked to political parties from the
INEC office.
“The REC, Administrative Secretary and several EOs, in their
depositions to this committee, confirmed these widespread accusations of
partisanship.
Among other things, this created a deep crisis of confidence that affected administration of election.”
Meanwhile, INEC said it was yet to receive the official report of
the police investigative panel on the December 10, 2016, legislative
rerun elections in Rivers.
The commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr.
Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
in Abuja.
The panel’s report, submitted to police authorities on February 7,
2017, indicted 23 electoral officers for allegedly collecting monetary
inducements to rig the elections.
Out of over N360 million said to have been received by the INEC
personnel, the panel publicly displayed N111 million which it recovered
from the officials who participated in the polls.
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