The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State
has questioned claims by Prof. Attahiru Jega, Chairman, Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) that a committee was set-up to investigate
complaints over the non-conduct of elections in the State.
The party said it was amazed to hear that the
purported committee had come to Rivers State as it expected that an
investigative or fact finding committee such as was said to have been
constituted would certainly have met with the complainants and other concerned
parties before taking a decision.
It added that the APC is even more surprised to hear
that the said investigative committee only met with Gesila Khan, Rivers
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in whom it long lost confidence in and
perhaps the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) being principally the two parties
whose misconduct during the botched elections, the said committee was meant to
investigate.
It wondered how an investigative committee would hear
only from one side particularly the main accused and culprit who would
naturally deny here illegal acts.
APC Chairman in the State, Dr. Davies Ikanya stated
this in a chat with newsmen in reaction to Prof. Jega's seemingly inconclusive
position on the March 28 elections in Rivers State shortly before the collation
of the trumped up results.
“Let me say emphatically that the committee set-up by
INEC to investigate the Rivers election case did not meet with us over our
petition to the Commission on claims that there was no election in Rivers
State. We are Nigerians and deserve to vote and be voted for as well as
ensuring that our votes do indeed count”, he declared.
Ikanya disclosed that contrary to Godsday Orubebe's
unwarranted outburst, he personally submitted his party's petition to the
Commission on Sunday and not by email, insisting that even Orubebe and his
co-travelers know there was no elections in Rivers State.
“Unlike the PDP petition that was smuggled to the
Chairman of INEC by Retired Col. Bello Fadile whose position in the PDP is not
known to Nigerians, Ikanya said though the Party understands that out of the
abundance of caution, Jega admitted the charade called elections in Rivers
State, the peoples' rights would not be sacrificed illegally, stressing that as
it stands “Rivers State does not have any elected representatives in the soon
coming 8th Assembly of NASS if nothing is done to redress the fraud by the
PDP”.
He recalled that political parties in Rivers State had
unanimously declared the purported elections was a mockery of democracy because
according to them, the PDP in concert with REC marred the entire process with
high momentum of irregularities, malpractices and killings.
Even a child will not believes that a State like
Rivers, control by the APC that the party will record less down 70 thousand
votes without one single candidates as against the opposition's over 1.4
million votes, Ikanya said.
He observed that the challenges Professor John
Etu-Efeotor, INEC Collation Officer for Rivers State experienced in the course
of presenting the concocted result was a case of a man battling with his
conscience to read what he did not write and what he knows was not true.
The Chairman who exhumed the show of shame exhibited
by Prof. Etu-Efeotor noted that the response of the learned Prof. when Jega
asked him “if he was not the one that compiled the result” and he answered “I
wrote it under a special condition” was enough proof that something was wrong.
Ikanya urged Prof. Jega to extend the joy the
commission has granted Nigerians to Rivers people by putting in place a team
comprising men and women of integrity to investigate the case of Rivers State
with a view to affording tested and trusted Rivers men and women space in the
take-off of the change vehicle.
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