As the May 29 handover date draws near, fresh controversy over the election results has been ignited between the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.
According to two online portals, Premium Times and Sahara Reporters, the governorship elections in the two states were flawed. Both websites reported that the votes cast were more than the number of voters accredited by card readers in the states.
While the PDP in Rivers State insisted that the online report was not true, the APC said the report was true and factual.
The reports specifically indicated that while the Independent National Electoral Commission announced the PDP governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike, as the winner of the April 11, poll with 1,029,102 votes, only 292,878 voters were accredited for the election in the state.
However it is important to note that it is practically impossible for Mr. Wike or any other candidate in the election to garner votes exceeding the total number of accredited voters, not to talk of amassing such hyper-inflated figure of 1,029,102 awarded Mr. Wike.
In Nigeria’s current electoral system, INEC’s central server automatically generates figures of voters accredited with the electronic Smart Card Readers and Permanent Voters’ Cards across the polling units.
INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said before the election that the arrangement was to prevent electoral fraud, especially falsification of number of accredited voters, to inflate number of votes cast, as in the case of PDP and Mr. Wike, and of course INEC in Rivers State.
Insiders in INEC revealed that the number of accredited voters generated by the commission’s central server is the valid, actual and authentic one for the Rivers State April 11 elections and that it would impossible for anyone to justify the excess votes allocated to Mr. Wike.
In the document, detailing polling unit by polling unit analysis of actual voters’ accreditation for the election, none of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) had up to 51, 000 accredited voters.
Rivers State is currently delineated into 319 Registration Areas (Wards) and 4,442 polling units.
Port Harcourt LGA had the highest number of accredited voters with 50, 962, while Khana LGA had just 145 registered voters turning up for accreditation.
A LGA by LGA analysis of the accredited votes shows that Obio/Akpor had 40,481 accredited voters and it was the only LGA with more than 40,000 but lower than 50,000.
Ogba/Egbema/Ndonu LGA had 24,816 accredited voters, while Ikwere LGA had 22,274.
Seven LGAs had between 10,000 and 20,000 accredited voters, according to the INEC endorsed document. They are Ahoada East (16,116 accredited voters); Ahoada West (16,369); Bonny (15,503); Degema (16,993); Akuku-Toru (12,439); Andoni (13,530); and Gokana (12,127).
Others were Asari-Toru (7,328); Emohua (5,014); Okrika (8,790); Opobo Nekoro (7,313); and Oyingbo (9,503); Abual-Odual (2,054); Omuma (1,998); Etche (1,268); Eleme (3,530); Khana (145); Ogu/Bolo (903); and Tai (3,362).
INEC insiders said the only ground that could explain the number of accredited voters in the election exceeding 292,887 is if manual accreditation were used in addition to the use of card readers.
But INEC did not approve the use of manual accreditation for governorship election in any of the states of the Federation.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission wishes to inform all Nigerians that Card Readers will be used for the April 11, 2015 Elections,” Augusta Ogakwu, Secretary to the Commission, said in a statement on April 6.
On Friday, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, confirmed to newsmen that manual accreditation was not employed in any state for the April 11 elections.
For instance, data obtained from INEC head office in Abuja show that the total number of accredited voters captured by card readers for the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom State was 437,128, but the figure declared by the state INEC office was 1,122,836,
The petitioners challenging Mr. Wike’s purported victory at the election petition tribunal are Kemka Elenwo, KOWA party; Dakuku Peterside, All Progressives Congress; Charles Harry, All Progressives Grand Alliance; and Minaibim Harry, Social Democratic Party.
The State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike has however accused the APC of sponsoring reports against his party.
Nwanosike explained that the that the PDP would not panic adding that the party would emerge victorious at the tribunal.
Nwanosike said, “What makes up accredited voters are those cards that were verified, authenticated and those that were verified and not authenticated. If the card is verified and authenticated, it would read in the machine as being successful.
“If a card is verified as INEC card and it is not authenticated, it would show red; it would decline. At that point, INEC said one should use the incident form to accredit the person. A lot of such incidents happened and people used incident forms to get accredited and vote.”
But the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, dismissed PDP’s claim that the online report was false, adding that his party decided not to immediately put the information on the conflicting figures of the governorship election in the state in public domain.
He revealed that the INEC in Abuja had obliged the legal team of the state APC the information that was recently published by the online platforms.
Finebone pointed out that the PDP rigging machine was good at everything, but lacked the sense of Mathematics, adding that it was clear, even to a toddler that ‘some fellows’ awarded figures to themselves.
He said, “Because of the position we occupy, some of us are not expected to put out certain information just like that. But I am happy that this information has gone viral. But I can assure you that we knew this close to two weeks ago when the information was obliged our legal team.
“The legal team of the State APC was privy to this information that is currently online. But we have our systematic way of managing information, especially critical information like this. That was why you probably did not hear it from us.”
Election observers, including the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria’s 2015 elections, had condemned the elections in Rivers State, alleging violence and irregularities. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Good one, they should also check for those states where APC won, like Lagos, Imo etc
ReplyDeleteWike, Ogboni can not solve this mathematics for you o......better start running because electoral offenders will surely go to jail.
ReplyDeletewiked this is not killing jungle justice time, it's real justice time. Gather your facts too to back up 1 million filled incident forms.......lol mama peace instrument
ReplyDeleteMama piss chai chai chai all this blood you pipo share for rivers state don dey answer o. you sure say you no go carry food go feed wike for prison so?
ReplyDeleteMay God help let us
ReplyDeleteHow many voters were accredited by card readers in Lagos, Kano , sokoto, Imo, and indeed the entire country?. Until the right answers are given and they contradicted the ones in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, then APC and indeed INEC has no moral right to complain. APC are just shout if to the top heaven complaining of what was the norms all over the country during that election.He who cry for justice must come with a clean hand, shekina
ReplyDeleteYou're always talking about northern state , they have PDPs that failed the election they should start digging just like Apc, if they can't then shut your mouth...stop making claims you can't back up
DeleteI dey laff oo
ReplyDeleteStop all dx witch hunting.whenever APC wins there are no complains of high figure but when its PDP you don't seem to reason any more . What happened In the North do you have 1milln plus accredited voters by inec yet no one is talking but as far as Rivers is concerned as well as aqua ibom PDP owns the mandate .You cant do anything to change there winning so stop all this noise.
ReplyDeleteThe APC candidate is a rivers man too.... not only wike is a rivers man.
Deleteif you want to rig, do it wisely......PDP members are just funny, thats how they have been stealing with so much impunity, and have applied the same mechanics in the election and it has really failed them.....APC please keep digging deep.
DeleteThe should check also all the under aged boys and girls that voted in all the northern states,where APC won.There are online videos to prove this as well.
ReplyDeleteThat works when PDP are ready to go to tribunal over there.
DeleteWike gather your facts as well. There can be 1 million voters that filled incident forms during the shooting that lasted all through the election day.
ReplyDeleteWike: Mummy wetin we go do now?
ReplyDeleteMama Piss: Nyesom, I na only you waka come o. I tell you say make you count am well before you carry am go Abuja.
Wike: but we count am well, even the dead bodi for cementry follow sef. only say them no fit finish filling the incident form as we dey talk now, the number too many. I beg tell jona your boy to help na.
All the governors in APC states won with over 1 Million plus...no one is asking them how come they inflated it to that extent...APC should allow Rivers and Akwa Ibom..must they control an oil state?
ReplyDeleteIt is still part of the conspiracy agenda of the north against the Niger delta. Unfortunately they have willing tools in the like of Amaechi and other APC villains who have working against the interest of the region for their selfish aim. God dey and Amaechi was disappointed, he did not get the VP slot, the very reason he defected, he did not even get the Secretary to the federal government slot, another disappointment, the North used manual voting to rig out PDP and the PDP over the are not complaining, cos it serves the interest of their region but only Amaechi and his fellow power drunk travellers in the Niger delta are shouting. A case of blind and selfish desire to the detriment of the entire region
ReplyDeleteYou think so!!!so you really want a murder to rule rivers state...so Dakuku is not a rivers man he is from the north. Just be careful before you get into trouble with your comments.
DeleteThis is a very bad comment. You are totally biased and need to debase yourself. Instead of condemning this nonsence you are blaming Amechi who is a job seeker just like Goodluck, Wike and every other politician. You DoD not see anything bad in what the PDP did. After all, why did Amechi leave PDP? You people will not want to deal with the cause of a problem, instead, you decide to blame someone else. What was your reaction to Patience Jonathan's behaviour? Please try to be objective.
DeleteYou have said it all.
DeleteMost of the comments here are biased. For me, the electoral act permits whoever is not satisfy with election result to follow due process to challenge it. Therefore, we should all stop uniformed comment based on sentiment and allow the tribunal to look into the process all over again.
ReplyDeleteSince the INEC server receives the data of voters' card accrediation real time, I had expected INEC to publish the information on their website by 3pm (or latest 5pm) on the election days.
ReplyDeleteNot just for Rivers/Akwa Ibom but for all the states in the Federation. So that as soon as the results are being announced, we all wil know which one is possibly real or doctored.
In all fairness, INEC should provide a breakdown of the number of pple that were accredited (with card readers oooo) and the actual votes for all the states.
ReplyDeleteTalking with "partial information". Have you forgotten that even Mr President was not accredited, and yet he voted? INEC ordered that accreditation should be done manually where card readers failed. So, INEC database does not have a pool of ALL that voted.
ReplyDelete