Stakeholders at a post-election review session by civil society organisations found most eye-witnesses pointing fingers at the police troops from the Rivers State Government House.
The session was organized by Community Initiative for Enhanced Peace and Development (CIEPD) headed by Egondu Esinwoke Ogbalor, the executive director.
One of the virulent accusers, a university professor, Lawrence Chuku from Woji in Port Harcourt the Rivers State Government House Police troops were the ones that carted away ballot boxes especially in Obio/Akpor local council area where he and the governor come from.
Chuku said the people must all join hands to salvage the country if we wanted it to be good. “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the architect of the electoral fraud that we saw. The situation now is likened to a man in his house and someone comes to rape his mother or daughter. He will choose to die first before you do it.”
The university don said until people’s votes are allowed stand, violence will surely continue. “Until people come out to resist them, they will continue. This is the worst election I have seen in my life.’
The political activist who said he and many other opposition politicians were under threat of arrest the governorship election called on voters to protect their votes.
Another eye-witness, Godspower Igwe, State Coordinator (YACORE), said it’s true the not-too-long young to run made youths to participate in politics. He said there was massive turnout of voters.
The snag, he said, is that a serving senator came and stopped counting of votes with police attached to him. “I was angry and even tore the $200 they gave to the youth corpers (NYSC members) working with the INEC.”
He said, police, please help this nation.
Some others who gave eye-witness accounts called INEC as the number one culprit in whatever is happening in the Niger Delta in the elections. He said they refused to upload results to the Bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), and gave wrong codes and could no longer be reached.
An journalist and NGO official, Constance Meju, narrated her account thus: “In our unit, there was no electoral officer to start off the voting. Voting started by 2.30pm. INEC suppressed voting.
“After counting, no password to upload. This incensed the voters. A Hilux van came and took the INEC people. This caused uproar and provoked crisis.”
The CIEPD board member, Joshua Gogo PhD, opened the session saying the NGO has the critical stakeholders assembled in the hall. He mentioned the police, the civil defence, and Civil society organisations.
Speaking for the Civil Defence, the deputy commandant, Ike Charles, said: “We are determined to make it better. It’s actually God that we rely on.”
He feared that pipelines are usually targeted during elections because the oil thieves know that most security attention is at elections.
The representative of the police, an assistant commissioner, Mamman Joseph, said Rivers State was okay compared with other states. “We implore these community representatives here to go back and educate their people to obey the electoral rules. There will be massive deployment of forces to protect sensitive facilities and installations.”
A member of the Transition Monitoring Group, Rivers State, said they were there to support the CIEPD transition monitoring effort. “We monitored areas and partnered with CIEPD in last election.”
An officer in dispute & conflict resolution desk said they want people to know that there is life after election. “Let’s achieve peace with all energy. This why this engagement is important.”
The head of cicil society organisations, Enefaa Georgewill, joined to appeal that there is life after elections, and that everybody cannot be politicians. He said his group saved and protected women at Elekahia by activating all the contacts with the military.
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Speaking for the Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), Meju said the NGO is a non-profit organization promoting peace in the Niger Delta and that peace comes from collaboration.
The Programme Manager of CIEPD, Adeniyi Lawal, said the NGO has trained almost 200 conflict trackers in Rivers State, and that other NGOs are working in other key states.
“Ours is to support conflict resolution in the Niger Delta. We formed trackers in the region to report in a platform since 2015 till now, making three circles. We track elections
“PIND approached us on collaboration in a violence prevention project. They have the funding, we provided coverage to sensitise the stakeholders, CSOs, media who we call the peace actors. This project is in eight local council areas.”
The executive director of CIEPD, Ogbalor, said there would be debriefing session later in the year. “This time, it has to include the politicians so we get to hear their own side of the story and their own experience.
“There is to be a peace accord but only one politician is here. He will not have to sign now but we will get this done. We will follow them up to sign and to see what they do.”
