The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has taken an unassailable lead and is cruising home to victory in the resumed collation of the Rivers State governorship polls, having won 13 of the 15 local government areas (LGAs) so far collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to the results released, the PDP has so far polled 426,279 votes while the All Progressives Congress-backed African Action Congress (AAC) got 129,855 votes. The AAC in Rivers said it would review its stand on the governorship election results. The AAC Rivers Secretary and agent for the collation of governorship results for the party, Nenye Kocha, described the collation process as transparent but noted that the party was not comfortable with the figures.
INEC suspended the collation process on March 10, including the state assembly elections. The electoral umpire, which cited alleged disruption of the process by some persons in military uniform as reason for the suspension, had set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the matter. The Commission later issued a statement, announcing that resumed collation and announcement of the results would hold between April 2 and 5 for 17 local government areas.
From the collations and results released so far, the PDP won in Ikwerre Local Government Area, the home of Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, where Governor Nyesom Wike polled 14,938 to beat Amaechi’s adopted candidate, AAC’s Biokpomabo Awara, who got 5,660 votes. Wike also won in Port Harcourt, Andoni, Eleme, Opobo/Nkoro, Bonny, Okrika, and Omuma Local Government Areas. Others won by Wike are Tai, Ahoada East, Emohua, Etche and Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Areas. The AAC won in Oyigbo and Akuku-Toru Local Government Areas.
INEC’s Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Teddy Adias, said the results from the remaining areas would be announced at 10 am on Wednesday. Although security was tight at the state headquarters of INEC along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, the military was conspicuously absent in the security architecture.
At the commencement of collation Tuesday, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Edo, Rivers and Bayelsa, Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, said the commission was committed to ensure a smooth and transparent process. She recalled that security issues led to the suspension of the process in the state and said the commission was poised to bring the process to a logical end. The State Returning Officer, Professor Teddy Adias, who coordinated the collation exercise, gave the assurance that INEC would be as fast as possible to see a successful completion of the election processes.
Reacting to the collation exercise, Nenye Kocha noted: “Things are now unveiling. We have been in the dark over what has been happening even when we had the unction that we were leading. In terms of transparency, the exercise is transparent. But the figures are not what we were expecting. As a party, we are going to review the gamut of all that had happened within the period and take a decision. The governorship candidate will also review the situation and take a stand.”
The agent of the PDP and former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Austin Okpara, also commended the process as transparent and expressed happiness with the outcome so far. Okpara said his party was “coasting home peacefully” adding that security agencies and INEC, had demonstrated professionalism in their jobs. For very obvious reasons, it has been very peaceful. The trouble makers are not here. We are coasting home to victory and we will establish a New Rivers State. This will also end the anxiety that our people have been made to go through. We need to apologize to Rivers people for the stress they have been put through by a group of people who mismanaged their affairs and are looking for who to blame,” he said.
Meanwhile, some groups of protesters defied the State Government’s ban on protests and marched in the morning through some parts of the metropolis to protest against and for the collation of results by INEC. The groups, United Niger Deltans for Buhari (UNDB) and Coalition of Non-Governmental Organization in Rivers State marched in protest against the collation of the governorship and state assembly elections in the state.
As the two groups moved from Air Force Junction on Aba Road through Rumuola to Agip junction in Port Harcourt, the protest came to an abrupt stop when they clashed with another group opposed to their protest. What started as a peaceful protest turned bloody around Hotel Presidential-Birabi area of GRA, Port Harcourt, with stones, bottles and later gunshots freely used. The timely intervention of the police however quelled the situation and restored the peace of the metropolis.
