Few month ago, during a journalistic course of compiling an article for one of the major publication on campus, I stumble over an article written by one of my most admire and respected classmate which was title ”politrikin the politician”. This article x-tray the electoral malpractice of politician and the agitation of the electorate towards the dividend of democracy while laying emphases on the anticipation of free and fair 2015 general election.
The article cited above was one of the pre-election cautions to the heat and tension circulating across the country, however, it is worth to note that the fear of the writer is being witness in River state as election turn into a situation where eligible citizens are denied their franchise to perform their civil responsibility which is being denied them by INEC officials who refused to release the result sheet (one of the sensitive document) to the electorate with a claim by the INEC officials that they have no obligation to show the result sheet.
In what could be seen as a monumental rape on the democratic system of Nigeria. The Rivers state voters protested against irregularity, where it could also be witnessed that election did not take place in River state, not in any ward or units, yet results are being collated at the INEC state center.
The heat which started generating when the Governor of the state, Rotim Amachi declined to be accredited because the INEC officials couldn’t provide the result sheet as demanded by him. This heat spread to other areas of the state, while voters later reconvened at the gate of INEC state secretariat chanting “we must vote” while being guided by the Joint Task Force personnel.
In the midst of this brouhaha, the All Progressive Congress (APC) representative wrote a petition and signed on the spot, then forwarded to the INEC representative in the building. this process was seen to have occurred twice, but despite their proactive measure not to allow the situation get out of hands and to remain calm, the INEC feedback mechanism is very poor, if not absent because there is no response from any quarter of the Independent Electoral Commission even as the protester show no signs of redrawing, in fact, it is apprehensive it might result to riot.
The state electoral commissioner who is accused of being bought over by the People Democratic Party (PDP), she is said to have been deployed to River State for the main purpose of rigging or as it has been recently phrase by political analyst as “Human Errors”. Her actions was said to have been a microcosm replica of what she did in Delta State, while she counter reacted that she had experiences in the past election, a claim which was void by APC representative that she meant she has experiences from elections conducted within PDP zonal strong hold.
It should be noted that the incumbent president, incumbent Governor of River State and his wife and many more political actors are all from the same state, which is a factor perceived to be responsible for the aggravated heat and tension in the region.

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