The March 9, 2019 governorship election in Rivers State has entered what many now call ‘voice-mail’, meaning that nobody knows who won. Other states have had their violence or rigging allegations but that of Rivers State has lived to its billing, disaster. Since 2015, no election has gone conclusive in the state. Even the governorship election of 2015 was expected to be cancelled and repeated until the Supreme Court which admitted that it was full of bloodshed and incidents awarded it to a winner; an action that ended the bloody circus called elections.
The other ones that were cancelled took several reruns to get persons somehow accepted as winners, yet, one could not be concluded till the tenure ended.
It could be a miracle to expect the 2019 governorship election in such a politically troubled state to go well. For 2015, a political party said it lost 100 members to violence. This year, many have died too, and the numbers would be released in due time.
What is important at the moment is that the exercise has been suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chaired by Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, while the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) in Rivers State, Obo Effanga, has been under bombardment and pressure. The REC of Rivers State could pass as handling the most delicate job on earth.
This is one election where every party says it won. The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it won the election, going by polling unit results. Their opponents counter that since the party said soldiers vandalised materials at polling units, from where did they get the victory?
The All Progressives Congress (APC) which is not even on the ballot says the party they are supporting, African Action Congress (AAC), represented by an engineer, Awara Biokpomabo, won the election. They hinge their claim on results from collation centres in the local governments. Now, different results are flying about on social media. The PDP counters that results written by soldiers who allegedly invaded collation centres could not be legitimate.
The investigation team that the national INEC sent has come and gone but citizens remain in the dark. It is possible to visit all polling units but duplicate of results have been difficult to produce. Many say no man can piece together documents that can make sense.
So, many have asked: what sense is the panel making out of a senseless situation? The state is pregnant. INEC can announce anything any time from now. Some think the delay may play into the APC which still has cases at the Supreme Court and the verdicts may bring them back on the ballot.
Industries
As the delay continues, the economy of the state keeps shutting down. Many multinational corporations quietly shut down hours before the Friday eve of the election out of fear that the Abuja High Court case involving the governor over forged birth certificate could rule Governor Nyesom Wike out of the elections and that there could be uprising.
After the elections, the suspense seems to continue with the companies still asking workers to stay home. They wonder what would happen if the governor was said to have lost in an election he said he was winning overwhelmingly. They also have to worry over what would happen if the APC/AAC lost. Already, Kula community where the AAC candidate hails from has given a war signal, saying oil economy would shut down in the oceanic town if their son was stopped. The community is on record to have shut down operations of an oil company for over one year in the area, demanding it be handed over to an indigenous oil company.
PDP: why it should be Wike
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State has stated that there is no ambiguity from results so far released in the March 9, 2019 Governorship and State Assembly elections, as Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has been duly re-elected for a second term.
The party, at a press conference addressed by State Chairman, Felix Obuah at the PDP Secretariat in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare Governor Wike winner of the election, adding that the results from all polling units and constituencies where elections were concluded have confirmed and reaffirmed that Rivers people voted no other party but the PDP.
Obuah, at the meeting that was attended by all stakeholders of the party in the state including all the elected State Assembly members, House of Representatives-elect as well as Senators-elect said with 26 State Constituencies already declared in favour of the PDP, there is no iota of doubt that Governor Wike has been re-elected by the good people of Rivers State.
He expressed confidence that from the results so far declared at the units across the state, the remaining PDP candidates, including Governor Wike, Senator George Thompson Sekibo and Hon. Betty Apiafi will also be elected on the strength of the peoples’ votes.
Giving a summary of the results so far released by INEC, the State PDP Chairman said that while PDP garnered a total of 26 seats in the State House of Assembly election, AAC/APC got none. Again, at the National Assembly election, while PDP won a total of 14 seats, AAC/APC recorded zero.
“As we await the official declaration by INEC that our Governorship Candidate, His Excellency, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has been duly re-elected in line with the peoples’ votes and overwhelming wishes, I urge the people of Rivers State to remain vigilant and continue to support our party”, Obuah said, amid ovation from the audience.
He went on: “The victories of February 23rd and March 9, 2019 are victories for all Rivers people. By voting massively for PDP, Rivers people chose freedom, performance and merit over political gangsterism, impudence and impunity.
“You courageously stood your ground despite the arrests, harassment, violence and horrific onslaught on our democratic rights by the combined gang of renegade soldiers and F-SARS personnel. I want to assure the people of Rivers State that PDP will not take your support for granted”.
He urged the people of the state to remain vigilant and continue to support the PDP, as the official declaration by INEC that Wike has been duly re-elected in line with the peoples’ votes, is being awaited.
While applauding the people of the state for overwhelmingly voting for all PDP candidates, Obuah assured that the second term of Governor Wike will generate more pro-people projects and programmes for the good and development of Rivers people.
APC: Give it to AAC
From all indications, it clear that the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is resolute on causing breach of the peace in Rivers State. We need not remind the Chairman and all those working to cause breakdown of Law and Order in Rivers State that under the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), once an election result has been collated and announced at the Collation Centre, not even the National Chairman of INEC can cancel such results except an Election Tribunal.
This was reemphasized by the Supreme Court in the case of IKPEAZU v. OTTI (2016) LPELR-40055(SC) pp.31-32, para D-B; DOMA v. INEC (2012) All NWLR (Pt.628), 814 at 833.
The question is: if the National Chairman is not aware of this settled position of the law, does his Legal Department which also has the presence of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria not also aware? The answer and the truth is that the National Chairman of INEC is fully aware of this position of the law, as members of the Legal Department has formally advised him on this, but he is adamant. He wants to subvert the law at all cost, just to please his friend and former boss Nyesom Wike.
We are using this medium to call on Mr. President, the National Security Adviser and all relevant security agencies and stakeholders to prevail on the National Chairman of INEC to declare Biokpomabo Awara of the African Action Congress who has won the Saturday Gubernatorial Election in Rivers State, except the National Chairman of INEC is resolute on causing unrest in Rivers State.
Governor Nyesom Wike is not without a remedy, if he strongly feels the results are wrong. He can approach the Electoral Tribunal to set aside the results.
Nigeria and the Security Agencies should hold the National Chairman of INEC and the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State responsible should there be a breakdown of Law and Order in the state.
Incitements, condemnations
Some commentators seem to be condemning the INEC chairman for not doing things in favour of the APC and now AAC. They alleged that it is because Yakubu worked as contractor on almajiri schools with Wike then minister of education. They also accused the REC, Effanga, of being a Buhari hater and Wike admirer. They have gone back to extract his social media quotes to try to prove he hates Buhari. The REC has marched on to deliver his mandate without accepting to respond.
A Port Harcourt-based commentator and media consultant, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, who actually is an APC chieftain, has called on the youth of the state not to sit and watch. His calls have been described as inciting. He has said that the plot by INEC to truncate and deny the state and her people their choice of a new leader to govern them is a big challenge to both the youth of the state and the Riverine section of the state.
Eze said that what the leadership of the APC in Rivers State has done, by adopting the AAC candidate was to kick-start the Not-Too-Young-to-Rule Act, as signed by President Muhammadu Buhari recently. Awara, who is currently 38 years, will be the second youngest governor ever to have governed Rivers State, should he be sworn in come May 29, 2019, after the founding military Administrator of the old Rivers State, Alfred Papapreye Diete-Spiff, who currently is the Amayanabo (King) of Twon-Brass in Bayelsa, who was merely 25 years old when he was appointed to oversee the leadership of the old Rivers State, then comprising the present Rivers and Bayelsa States.
In this regard, Eze urged the youth of the state to come together and assist one of their own to develop the state as 40 percent of those that will form Awara’s cabinet will be picked from the youth bracket. He added: “Let us support this new leader and forget Wike who has no plans for the future of Rivers State youths apart from arming and recruiting them as militants and disrupting the education of our youths through destruction of the education sector.”
Eze postulated that, “The politics of Rivers State is based on the Upland/Riverine dichotomy and the upland section of the state, through Peter Odili, Amaechi and Wike, had governed the state in the last 20 years to the detriment of the Riverine section of the state. Sadly Wike, through propaganda, wants to prolong the woes of this section by ensuring, with the help of the Judiciary and INEC, this section of the state comprising great Rivers’ sons and daughters. God will not allow these machinations to frustrate the dream of the Riverine section of the state to govern the state through Awara this time around to succeed”.
Eze stated that it is the drive by Amaechi for a candidate from this area to become the next governor of Rivers State that is the cause of all the alleged attacks and falsehoods against him by Wike and his devious cohorts.
Military, militants and militias
Many have talked about the roles of the military who said they came to confront the militants, and the militants who dress in military uniforms and move against the militias and the citizens. The militias are mostly the cult boys and local thugs who control proceedings at the local areas. When the militants come, the militias run, and when the military comes, the militants run. Each group is loyal to certain top leaders. Whichever one loses force, the top leaders it reports to cries out. Each leader has either the military, the militants or the militias. Nobody is safe from any of the above.
Conclusion: INEC will speak soon
INEC cannot keep quiet much longer. The Commission would either declare the results from the words/polling units that went fairly smoothly before invasions started or announce results from the troubled collation centres. Else, it may cancel some areas most affected and order a completion election or do outright cancellation and order a rerun of the elections. Whatever INEC does will not resolve the fact that elections cannot hold in Rivers State the way things stand at the moment. This must be attended to before any other election takes place in the state.
Whatever is the case, the world is watching and waiting, and the waiting will not be long.
Ignatius Chukwu
