Postponed rerun elections heighten old rivalries in Rivers

One of the strongest reasons that might have compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to indefinitely postpone the scheduled rerun State and National Assembly elections, earlier scheduled for last weekend in Rivers State, was the poor state of insecurity.

The commission has harped on the fact it could not afford to risk lives of innocent citizens of the country or those of its staff, in any insecure environment to conduct elections.

While INEC insisted on its reason, the unfolding political process in the state has further heightened the rancorous rivalry between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the rival All Progressives Congress (APC).

Although, the two parties are pointing accusing fingers at each other over the postponement, it is however difficult to determine for now, if the deferment would bolster the fortunes of the APC, which has been struggling to regain its lost grounds in the state, since it suffered defeat in the 2015 governorship election.

Unknown arsonists recently torched the INEC office in Bori and Khana local government areas, one of the eight local governments, where the rerun polls were supposed to take place.

It was gathered that the arsonists stormed INEC office in Bori, at about 1am; set the building ablaze destroying several valuables and documents.

The rerun polls are crucial to both parties. One, the ruling PDP appears to abhor existence of any opposition while the APC considers the rerun, which include three senatorial seats, some House of Representatives and House of Assembly seats in eight local governments, as it’s only opportunity to stage a comeback after the humiliating defeat in the 2015 general elections.

Prior to the attack on INEC office that justified the postponement, the state governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike had accused the commission’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu of taking actions that were inimical to conducting credible re-run.

The governor alleged that Yakubu secretly met with the APC chairman, Davies Ikanya and the party’s South East senatorial district candidate, Magnus Abe on July 19, 2016.

According to him, “They are frustrating elections in Rivers because of one man who bankrolled elections for the APC. They have posted electoral officers from APC states to rig elections and they want to accede to the request of the opposition to post out the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).”

Boasting that it was not possible for anybody to rig elections in a state under his control, Wike said the INEC chairman only has power to postpone elections, but has no power to rig elections in Rivers

He alleged: “On 19th of July, the APC chairman, Davies Ikanya, Senator Magnus Abe and others held a meeting with the INEC chairman in his office at about 7.30pm to 8pm.

“Rivers is key to the development of Nigeria, but I wonder whether the power at be would continue to deny the state its adequate representation in the National Assembly.

The Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity in INEC, Mr. Nick Dazang, confirmed the meeting between his boss and the APC chieftains, he however dismissed the insinuation that it was a secret meeting as alleged by the PDP and Wike.

According to him, “The INEC chairman, with three National Commissioners, and two directors, met with a delegation of the APC, led by its deputy national chairman. The meeting was routine, the leadership of the party earlier requested it.”

He explained that similar routine meetings between INEC and other parties had taken place at the INEC headquarters “it is INEC’s policy and this is being strictly adhered to under Yakubu’s watch, to avoid any suspicion or allegation of bias. The chairman meets leaders of political parties in the presence of the national commissioners. It is, therefore, not true that the meeting was secret, as alleged by Wike or intended to favour the APC,” he said.

During his visit to the INEC burnt office, Wike blamed the inferno on opposition politicians, whom he said were not prepared for the rerun elections. “They are the brain behind the destruction of INEC office and documents all in a bid to force the commission to shift the rerun elections.

According to him, “Those who burnt this office were not ready for the elections. They don’t want INEC to conduct the elections because they knew that they don’t have the chances of winning. They want to use the issue of security to justify the request for postponement; otherwise, INEC has not brought election materials to this office. What they have done is to instill fear in INEC but we are not surprised. We know this is what they have planned to do.”

It would be recalled that the governor had earlier accused INEC, during the celebration of Democracy Day on May 29, of destroying the foundations of democracy by plotting to allocate the remaining legislative seats in Rivers to APC instead of conducting the inconclusive rerun elections.

He, however, pleaded with the INEC to accelerate preparations for the conduct of the rerun elections for the remaining seats, saying: “We want our representatives in the Senate, we want our representatives in the House of Representatives. We are not saying that INEC should allocate seats to us all we want is to go to the poll and vote,” he said.

But the State’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak refuted Wike’s claim as he described it as unsubstantiated.

According to him, “If the declared results were not allocated to him, there is no way INEC can go ahead and allocate the results of an election yet to be held to anybody. There is no plan to allocate legislative seats to any political party in the state.”

Meanwhile, PDP state chairman, Felix Obuah, who has repeatedly bragged that his party would oust the APC from Rivers insisted that the attack on INEC office in Bori, was primarily orchestrated to postpone the polls.

Although, Wike and the ruling PDP have opposed the postponement, the APC however expressed mixed feelings.

The Spokesman of APC in Rivers, Chris Finebone, expressed disappointment that the postponement would further deny the people adequate representations in the National Assembly and the State Assembly.

Finebone said if the PDP had abandoned its attitude of resorting to violence as a tool for seeking political power, the postponement of the rerun elections wouldn’t have been necessary.

“Indeed, we blamed the postponement on the sustained violence and killings orchestrated by PDP. The latest of the string of violence the PDP has been perpetrating in, is the burning down of INEC office in Bori after governor’s hate speech against INEC and the APC leaders, a few hours earlier at Okehi,” he alleged.

Finebone said the APC found it curious that as soon as the INEC facility was destroyed in Bori, the most virulent critic of INEC, Governor Wike, turned around to offer the electoral umpire a Greek gift to the effect that INEC could relocate to the Khana Council.

On his part, Abe claimed that the burning of the INEC office in Khana Local Government Area was a ploy to use the council’s secretariat to conduct the legislative rerun election.

According to him, “Using the secretariat would offer them the advantage to manipulate the elections. I wondered why the arsonists would burn down the INEC office situated close to the police officers quarters undetected and the culprits not arrested?

“What was shocking about the destruction of this office was that this is where you will regard as the green zone as far as Bori is concerned. On your left, you have the offices of the local government council; on your right, you have the residence of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the council. Right behind you here, you have where the security officers stay and yet people could come into the heart of this place to carry out this kind of dastardly act. You can see that exactly what happened to my senatorial office in Bori is what happened here. The same kind of dynamite and the same kind of attack,” he said.

The PDP has since the declaration of the March 19 polls as inconclusive focused its attention on Rivers South East senatorial district election.

This stemmed from the fact that the APC candidate was considered to be in a better position to clinch his party’s governorship in 2019, should he make it to the Senate.

This explains why the election in Rivers South East has remained contentious.

Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr. Austin Tam-George has however, said the government would support INEC to conduct free and fair elections “but trust has to be earned,” he said.