The governorship candidate of the
African Action Congress in Rivers State, Biokpomabo Awara, says he is leading
Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party in the results of the
governorship election in the state.
He made the claim after the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the collation of
results Sunday evening.
Mr Awara is being backed in the
elections by the All Progressives Congress (APC) which is led in the state by
the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
The APC adopted the AAC after it
was disqualified from participating in the elections due to the crisis over its
primaries.
INEC cited reports of widespread
disruptions of the elections for its suspension of the results collation
process.
Sources revealed on Monday that
observers and INEC officials in the state sent the reports of disruptions to
the electoral commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Reacting on Monday afternoon
through a statement he made available in Port Harcourt, Mr Awara said the
suspension of the collation process was a move to help Mr Wike gain some
“respite” and “frustrate my victory.” He then rejected the suspension.
He said the collation exercise
had ended in seven local government areas and that he secured 289,773 votes
against Mr Wike’s 76,633 votes in those areas. According to him, the areas are
Ahoada West, Eleme, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru, Ikwerre and Oyigbo.
But while the PDP and Mr Wike are
also claiming a win already and asking that the “results should not be
changed”, INEC at the state level did not confirm any of the claims.
According to his Linkedln
profile, Mr Awara is an engineering graduate from the Rivers State University
of Science and Technology and has worked with Shell. Until last Wednesday when
he was endorsed by the APC, which has no candidates in the elections, he was
not considered a serious challenger to Mr Wike.
Continuing in his statement, Mr
Awara said the collation exercise was still ongoing in 16 LGAs, including Mr
Wike’s Obio Akpor, before the suspension was announced.
He said: “The INEC pleaded
insecurity, violence, seizure of electoral materials by hoodlums etc. as the
reasons for suspending the remaining stages of the Election. I reject the
reason given by INEC. This because in the Local Government Areas that were
affected, voting had concluded, results declared at the polling units and
collation had begun before the abrupt suspension of the process. The Commission
does not have the power under our Electoral Act to suspend elections that has
already been concluded.”
Mr Awara accused the INEC in the
state of partiality and being compromised by the state government.
According to him, “The suspension
of the elections by INEC was done to give respite to candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), who was trailing behind, frustrate my victory. My party
went into these elections against an umpire dangerously skewed in favour of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“The Resident Electoral
Commission, all the Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers, Heads of
Department in the Rivers Offices of The Commission were all working for the
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. No wonder when they saw that I was
leading and would eventually win the election, they raised a false alarm to the
Headquarter of the Commission and misinformed them that there was widespread
violence and seizure of electoral materials.
“We have on good authority the
following facts:
“i. Every Local Government
Council Chairman in Rivers State pays the sum of One Million Naira (N1,000,000)
the Electoral Officer assigned to his Local Government and other sums of money
to other electoral personnel;
“ii. The Resident Electoral
Commissioner was bought a house for in Maitama Area of Abuja by the Governor of
Rivers State, who incidentally is the Governorship candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP); and
“iii. The Administrative
Secretary of the Rivers State office of the Commission, Elder Etim John was
paid the sum of Three Hundred Million (N300,000,000) Naira by Governor Wike as
inducement to secure 100 per cent posting of the Ad-hoc staff list in favour of
the PDP.
“To justify the financial
inducement given to him by the Governor, the said Administrative Secretary
Elder Etim John did not only ensure that the posting of the Ad-hoc staff
overtly favoured the PDP but he also got carried away to the extent that he
even included the names of well-known relatives of some PDP candidates and
chieftains in the list.
“On his part, the State Resident
Electoral Commisioner (REC) Mr Oboe Efaga on the eve of the election replaced
most of the ad-hoc workers which were already published on the Commission’s
notice boards with the names of card carrying members of the PDP. For instance,
in the following Local Government Areas the under listed persons were suddenly
deployed as Local Government Collation Officers:”
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Ameachi, Buhari, APC wh8ich type of magic is that? liars! All APC will surely go to hell in Jesus name amen, your party rape this election to pieces and God will judge you people up to your 10th generation
ReplyDeleteEveryone know that Rivers State is for PDP there is no doubt about that, stop giving yourself and your party names
ReplyDeleteThey are over using their power which will surely bounce back on their children children
ReplyDeleteAPC must surely give account before God Almighty
ReplyDeleteThis Buhari government is shakushaku
ReplyDeleteIs only God that will punish APC and their cabal
ReplyDelete