14th August, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Barely 48 hours after the candidates of All Progressive Congress, APC, led by its governorship candidate, Dr Dakuku Peterside, protested at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, a special taskforce has been dispatched to Rivers INEC office in Port Harcourt.
PM News gathered this morning that the team is led by the Director of Legal Services, Mr. Ibrahim Bawa and will be supported by other Administrative staff drawn from INEC offices from Bayelsa, Ebonyi, and other contiguous states to sort out relevant electoral materials.
It was learnt that the INEC officials are doing everything possible to sort out initial bottlenecks like power and photocopiers to make copies of the needed materials. A source confided that the task force team has refused to seek help from outside of INEC in order not to compromise the system.
Our correspondent also gathered that the setting up of a taskforce is in compliance with the directives of the Rivers State election tribunal in Abuja.
The sorting is being done under the watchful eyes of the representatives of the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state.
Peterside led other candidates of APC in a peaceful protest to INEC headquarters in Abuja over the non-compliance by the Ms Geslia Khan, Resident Electoral Commissioner of Rivers State, to make available the INEC materials used for April 11 election.
It is not clear the volume materials that may be sorted out and the ability of the taskforce to meet the deadline as well as the issue of forensic experts inspecting the electoral materials.
The Assistant Publicity Secretary of PDP, Rivers state, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, had lashed out at the APC and its party candidates as propagandists who are not man enough to accept the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike and other PDP candidates in the last elections.
Nwanosike who is also the PDP agent at INEC condemned the protest and statements credited to APC and its candidates that the tribunal would cancel elections in the state even when the substantive case had not been heard by the tribunal.