30th March, 2015
The electoral charade that took place in some wards in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on Saturday during the Presidential and National Assembly polls, which spilled over to Sunday, was rather unfortunate and underscored the desperation of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to win the election. It was difficult to imagine that the election was going to be conducted in the affected wards without result sheets.
It was the same story in some parts of Edo, Lagos and other states where result sheets were not provided for the voting exercise. Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, had to stop the voting exercise in the affected wards because of the unpardonable oversight on the part of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Voting there would have ended up as a charade without the result sheets.
How could INEC have sent sensitive materials for election in the affected wards without the result sheets? Where did the electoral umpire expect the result of the election to be recorded? The failure of INEC to provide result sheets was a recipe for the chaos that has engulfed Rivers State, leading to the death of some people during the voting exercise.
Where is the transparency in the entire process if INEC could create room for the subversion of the will of the people to vote for candidates of their choice? Just as it did in some local governments in Imo State in 2011, election in the affected wards in Rivers State should be rescheduled and conducted in a transparent manner.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State must rise to the occasion and ensure that the crisis rocking the state over the botched polls is resolved through the conduct of a transparent, credible, free and fair election. We will remain a laughingstock in the comity of nations if we cannot get it right in terms of providing full-proof logistics during elections.
Rivers State has become a political cauldron because the gladiators want to win at all costs. Until the proper thing is done, there will hardly be peace in the state which has recorded one of the highest number of politically motivated killings before and during this 2015 general election.
The security agencies in the state have not helped matters as they have been accused of taking sides with the political party and aggressor that believes it must win the polls at all costs. The level of impunity in the state is very appalling and unacceptable.