The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it was working assiduously to end the collation of gubernatorial election in Rivers State before 5th of April.
This was disclosed by Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and chairman of the commission’s committee on information and voter education, Monday, in an interview with BusinessDay. He said that three National Commissioners had been deployed to the Rivers for the on-going collation of result in 19 Local Government Areas of the state.
“The collation of result in Rivers will end on the 5th of April; we have results in the 17 Local Government Areas of the state. We have result in two LGAs whose election was disrupted; in those two LGAs, we will start collation at the polling units from those places so that we can upgrade the result to the 17 LGAs to make it 19,” he said.
INEC had declared election in the state inconclusive after suspending the collation of results for the March 9, 2019 governorship and State Assembly elections due to electoral malpractice, violence and threat to life.
The INEC Commissioner further said that supplementary election may not be conducted in the four Local Government Areas of the state where elections did not take place, adding that the commission would check the number of registered voters in the LGAs and decide if the margin of the candidate leading is less than the registered voters before deciding.
“If the margin is less we would announce the winner”, Okoye said.
He assured that the commission had put in place the necessary machinery to conclude the gubernatorial election in Rivers State, stressing that all stakeholders should maintain peace.
“We are on ground we have held meetings with security agencies and the parties, Okoye added.
