Despite the official announcement of Chief Ezebunwo
Nyesom Wike as the winner of the governorship election in Rivers State by the
controversial Resident Electoral Commission, Mrs. Gezila Khan, there are strong
indications that the embattled Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega and Mrs. Khan may have come under fire
for the electoral fraud which took place in the state which led to the death of
many as well as the wanton destruction of public and private properties.
A source at the headquarters of INEC which preferred
anonymity revealed to The Beam that due to the outcry by the international
community as well as Nigerians at large who witnessed the charade called
elections in Rivers State, the electoral umpire has been forced to set up a
7-man investigative committee and come up with a report on Friday, April 18,
2015.
According to our findings, Prof. Jega has been
inundated with calls, reports and petitions particularly over the case of
Rivers state where both his staff and the security agencies were said to have being
heavily compromised.
There were also reports that two out of the three
Federal Commissioners who were sent to conduct the elections alongside the REC,
after several protests by the All Progressive Congress, APC, prior to the
governorship and Assembly elections, were also said to have been compromised as
evidence has been allegedly found on them.
The election, which both local and international
observers have described as a sham, may be a litmus test for Jega as he hots up
to win the Nobel Laureate Prize for Peace as a result of his conduct before and
during the elections.
Rivers state being a flash point for the election
attracted more international observers as well as the attention of the United
States Embassy and the European Union have totally condemned the elections in
Rivers and Bayelsa states.
Though there has not been any official statement from
the Chairman of INEC on the state of things in Rivers which witnessed high
level rigging and violent attacks on opponents of the PDP, the REC, Mrs. Khan
who is kinsman of President Jonathan from Otuoke, has given herself a pat on
the back in spite of criticisms against her conduct which was first displayed
during the presidential elections.
The failure of Jega to effect a change of his staff in
the state after the presidential election which attracted strong protests from
the APC, further culminated to a high level impunity, which characterized the
elections.
While the APC had hoped to translate the support they
had throughout the campaign period into actual votes cast, the PDP was busy
building their ‘army’ as well as perfecting plots to clone the ballot papers as
well as the result sheets.
Information which reached us prior the presidential
elections revealed that the governorship candidate of the PDP had through a
surrogate, one Albert Amakiri, a close friend of Celestine Omehia, approached
some staff of the INEC at the Operations and ICT department and had obtained
all the serial numbers meant for the entire elections. After paying heavily for
the said documents, they obtained the serial numbers for the ballots and the
result sheets with which they printed theirs similar to those of INEC.
It would be recalled that some time between 2010 and
2011, the candidate had through his Edo-born Manager and a former Council
Chairman in the state, procured heavy duty printing and minting machines from
United Kingdom for the said purpose.
With the printed result sheets and the ballots papers,
but without the Card Readers, all that was needed for the PDP was to cart away
the ballot boxes in order to stuff the all ready thumb printed ballot papers.
Their contacts in the ICT section of the electoral body had also assured them
that the Card Readers would be made to fail during the elections as that would
guarantee the use of manual accreditation. They also had printed incident forms
during the presidential elections.
With the support of Mrs. Jonathan who influenced the
security agencies and the militant leaders, it was an easy ride for the PDP to
perfect their acts of rigging and thuggery as evidenced by high-level violence.
While it is still constitutionally possible for Jega
to go for a total cancellation of the elections in Rivers State in the face of
strong evidence, the Election Petition Tribunal has already been set up and the
sitting for Rivers State will be in Abuja.
With this, Rivers State may yet witness a similar
scenario of what transpired in 2007 where the Supreme Court sacked the sitting
governor, Celestine Omehia.
For Gezila Khan, she may be made to pay the price at
the end of the sitting of the investigative Committee, if evidence against her
is proved beyond doubt, as it is likely to be.
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