An interim report by
Independent Election Monitoring Group has taken a swipe at the conduct of the
governorship/assembly polls in Rivers state saying it rubbishes whatever
progress Nigeria has made in its democratic process.
A reports signed by Esther
Achor said the election was a charade in which hoodlums, thugs, security agents
connived to unleashed terror on voters.
INDEPENDENT ELECTION MONITORING GROUP
(IEMG)
PORT HARCOURT – April 12, 2015
INTERIM REPORT ON OBSERVATION OF THE
GOVERNORSHIP AND STATE
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS THAT HELD ON SATURDAY 11
APRIL 2015
By Esther Achor (esq.)
Background
The Independent Election Monitoring Group (IEMG)
observed the 2015 Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections scheduled for
Saturday 11 April 2015.
IEMG deployed INEC accredited observers across the
local government areas of Rivers state to observe the elections and also
tracked the conduct of security agencies deployed to manage the electoral
environment during the process. IEMG also monitored trends on social media.
IEMG shared its on the spot field observations with such networks as the
Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room, Reclaiming etc. Observers sent
in real time field reports using a specific checklist for tracking compliance
with electoral guidelines, and impunity. This preliminary report presents the
findings with regards to the accreditation exercise, election security and the
use of Card Readers.
From the reports received thus far from our field
observers, we present the following interim report.
Preliminary
Findings
Arrival of INEC staff across the state, INEC officials
were reported to have arrived late in most of the polling units across the
local governments of the state. Our observation and tracking show that none of
the INEC staff arrived before 9am while most arrived between 10 and 1pm. This
also includes INEC materials. There were incidents of very late or non-arrival
of INEC staff and materials in some polling units. For instance, by 12 noon
INEC materials and adhoc staff had not left its RAC at the Primary School 1,
Eneka covering Eneka/Rukpokwu Ward 14 in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of
the state.
Commencement of
Accreditation
Our observers and information from social media
tracking indicate that accreditation did not commence on time where it actually
happened. In most places it did not happen as materials never arrived, or when
they arrived, were carted away to unknown destinations by unknown gun carrying
thugs, often times in company of uniformed security personnel.
Security presence
Security was a very serious concern throughout the
process in Rivers state. Although generally most polling stations reportedly
had security presence, there are reports that security was either absent or
insufficient in a number of places. There are documented reports of killings
across the state. Violence, intimidation, harassment of voters/observers and
disruption and carting away of voting materials were rife across the state. As
a direct result, actual voting never took place in most units and wards and
local governments in the state. The following examples are very instructive:
Shooting reigned in Ikuru Town in Andoni Local
government area unmolested, home place of the Deputy governor of Rivers state,
who recently defected back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Voters as a
direct result were scared of turning up and that enabled the shooters to have a
field day with INEC materials without any let or hindrance.
5 men in fake military uniform were arrested while
they took charge in the handling of INEC material and handed over to the Kpor
Police in Gokhana LGA. Police personnel shot dead in the Rex Lawson Area of
Borokiri in the Port Harcourt Township, Port Harcourt local government area.
3 persons were killed in Omagwa and several others
sustained serious injuries. Omagwa is in Ikwerre Local government Area.
Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local government area witnessed
violence and killings.
Fatal stabbing was recorded at Ward 15, Unit 10 of
Khana Local Government Area. One Gbogbo Eric.
Assistant Inspector General of Police was forced out
of the state following orders from the Presidency, because he disciplined a
police divisional officer who allegedly procured INEC election result sheets
for illicit distribution. The junior police officer was restored to his post at
Buguma, while the AIG deployed to Rivers state to take charge of security for
the elections was forced back to Calabar on the morning of the election. This
no doubt facilitated the degeneration of insecurity throughout the state.
Citizens were killed and beheaded, houses burnt and
properties destroyed. Mrs Joeba West, a Commissioner in the state suffered this
fate.
INEC material meant for Abonnema Local Government Area
was hijacked and made away with by political thugs.
Disruption of
accreditation
Generally the accreditation process did not go on
smoothly in majority of the units observed, while in some places it went on
smoothly. Political thugs were responsible for the major disruptions witnessed.
And most of these took place in the presence of security personnel, who looked
either helpless or uninterested. Incomplete materials were also cause for
concern and created tension that aided disruption, violence and killings. These
cases were not insolated.
INEC material was hijacked in Buguma, the Asari Toru
Local government area. In same place, the INEC building was torched, material
burnt, including vehicles. Accreditation did not happen because the materials
were not available. No election happened either, but violence made the round
and deaths recorded.
In Okirika, material was hijacked and privatized by
militiamen. They determined who voted under the nose of security personnel.
They decided to abandon the card reader for manual accreditation contrary to
INEC regulation/instruction/guideline for the election. The INEC adhoc staff
neither had voice nor power, therefore, followed contrary orders.
APC party agents in all 5 polling units in Kalio-Ama
(Ward 9), Okrika were abducted from their units by unknown gun men, while
policemen on duty watched helplessly. Spirited efforts were made by other APC
persons to trace, locate and release them from where they were being held. It
was alleged that their captors were PDP militants. By the time they were
restored to their duty posts, electoral materials had been hijacked and taken
away by political thugs.
There was no security presence in Ward 7, Okrika, yet
some politicians in the area were patrolling openly and with police escort.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Rumuepirikom
Police Station, in Obio/Akpor LGA of Rivers State early aided the movement of
INEC election materials at the RAC covering Wards 12 and 13 in Obio/Akpor LGA,
situated at Ola-Nu-da Model Primary School, opposite the Rivers State College
of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt. She (DPO) escorted a Passat wagon car into
the RAC and carted away the original materials, shooting and chasing away APC
agents. This experience was witnessed in a number of places including Ward 14,
Rukpokwu/Eneka, in Obio/Akpor LGA.
Contrary to the guideline by the Inspector General of
Police that police officials should stay away from their political masters
during the election, Dr. Tamuno Danagogo, Minister of Sports was seen in his
Abonnema, Akuku Toru local Government area, in company with security agents, as
he moved around the town.
INEC electoral materials in Akuku Toru Wards 15, 16
and 17 were hijacked at gun point. The attackers were led by two notorious
cultists who were identified as Hope Dan Opusungi and Kenneth Dan Opusungi.
Having seized the materials, the armed men barred polling agents of other
political parties from escorting the materials to the distribution centre. The
two Opusungis', were alleged to be card-carrying members of the PDP.
In Obio/Akpor LGA, Ward 14, it was a PDP crested bus
that took the INEC material from its Eneka Primary School 1 RAC. The police had
to shoot in the air and threw teargas to disperse other party agents before
leaving the RAC in company of PDP personnel.
Shocking cases of cold blooded killings and beheading
, obstruction of votes , arson , voters intimidation , ballot snatching ,
missing result sheet , presenting of fake ballot papers , multiple thumb
printing , campaigning's at polling unit , compromise of ad-hoc staffs, absence
of level playing environment ,violence against media personnel and impunity
were witnessed in different magnitude across the length and breath of the
state. These acts were brazen.
Card Reader
related issues
In a number of places the card reader was used and it
functioned well. In others it was abandoned for manual accreditation, contrary
to the rule of INEC and this facilitated irregular thumb-printing/massive
rigging. In majority of places where election did not hold by reason of
violence, the Cared Reader was not tested, or out rightly gutted by the inferno
that ensued in such places as Buguma etal. It is noteworthy, going into the
elections, INEC restated that Card Readers will be used and where there were
problems, voting will be done the following day.
Preliminary
Recommendations:
INEC should examine thoroughly the role of its
Electoral Officers and adhoc staff to determine whether some of their
behaviours were deliberate or informed by the unimaginable level of
intimidation, violence and criminality that ensued. This is absolutely
necessary because it was observed that in most instances politicians and
security officials controlled events at polling units, whereas INEC trained
personnel remained subservient, sometimes scared.
Security agencies failed to effectively protect voters
and the votes, making it absolutely difficult for votes to count in most units
in the state. Security should have been boosted following the experiences
encountered during the Presidential and National Assembly elections. The motive
behind the redeployment of the AIG Zone 6 should be thoroughly examined and
check its consequences in view of degeneration of insecurity throughout the
state.
INEC should ensure adequate preparations are made for
ballots to casted in secret, the manner of counting of ballots and collation of
results should be improved. Observers noted that the cubicles were not present,
therefore votes were casted openly and dangerously. Political interference in
voting were also noticed by reason of the openness. They should also reach out
to political parties to educate them further, that it is the rule of law rather
than the rule of the thumb that determines electoral outcome, if only to stem
the climate of intimidation and human slaughter.
The mini war situation in Rivers state in the name of
electoral process is most troubling and must not be allowed to continue. This
denied voters the expression of their will. What was observed in the state
cannot be said in any reasonable manner to be a near triumph to democracy, or
an improvement on what this INEC has set out to do with the electoral process
in Nigeria. It is rather a coup d'etat against the will of the voting public in
the state.
What shows quite clearly in the Rivers state event,
rather than a process, is that enemies of democracy continue to discover a whole
armory of technology that enables them to retain power despite the huge
investment, human energy and voter's efforts put in place to hold elections
aimed at making the votes to count. The name of that technology in this
particular situation is impunity.
An election as set out by this INEC should confer
legitimacy upon the victor, and the need to secure votes should ensure that the
victor reached out to be inclusive. To accept this charade in the name of free,
fair and credible election by whatever standard would amount to the denial of
an increasingly evident reality.
The governorship and house of assembly's elections in
Rivers state reminds that war has not yet passed into history. Observers
witnessed battle related deaths, maiming for politicians to achieve their goal
of attaining power. Those whose constitutional responsibility it is to defend
citizens from organized violence were the ones perpetrating it against the
citizens. This election showed quite clearly that extreme violence in the case
of Rivers state is the preferred route to political power.
It is important therefore, not to reward extreme
violence as clearly and evidentially represented in the case of Rivers state.
Cancelling and specially rescheduling the Rivers state election is the panacea
for the present and recurring habit of killing, breaking of fundamental rules
for power, is recommended. Democracy and its deepening will be better for it.
Based on observers' field reports, there is no way the likely usual allocation
of non-existent figures that will definitely surface in the name of winning and
losing the election in the state, represent the will of the voters of the
state. We strongly urge INEC not to deny the reality in Rivers state regarding
this particular election, and protect the future of democracy and livelihood of
citizens in an accountable manner.
0 comments