By Emma Njoku

A report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on the December 10, 2016 rerun legislative elections in Rivers State has indicted security operatives who participated in the poll.

The report of the administrative enquiry into the rerun election, set up by the Commission, detailed how security operatives engaged in snatching of electoral materials, intimidation of voters and deliberately refusal to accompany electoral officers to their duty posts.

Security operatives were accused of having actively participated in electoral offences. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had written a petition against security agencies.

With the INEC report, he has been vindicated.

The INEC report said: “As part of preparations for the elections, the entire 23 Electoral Officers (EOs) in the state were replaced with new ones from Plateau, Anambra and Oyo states. They all reported in Rivers State on November 28, 2016 and were posted accordingly to the local government areas.
“Reposting of EOs was rather late, making it difficult for them to understand the environment and prepare adequately for the elections…

“One of the low points of the Rivers rerun elections of December 10, 2016 was the flagrant intervention of security operatives in the process. This was widely identified by staff of the Commission and independent observers alike, as one major factor that led to the failure of the process in some local government areas. There were too many security agencies involved in the process, outside the framework of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).

“It was not clear whether many of them were acting as part of their various organisations or as groups and individuals serving political interests. Most importantly, many of them showed profound political partisanship.

“Ironically, security operatives, who were expected to protect the process, turned on it. There were reported cases of wilful obstruction of the process by security operatives, including snatching of materials and intimidating voters. In other cases, they refused to accompany and protect men and materials for elections.

“But, the most mind-boggling were cases of hostage-taking, hijack of materials and physical attacks on INEC officials perpetrated by security operatives. Of singular note was a certain policeman named Akin Fakorede, who ostensibly is a commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in Rivers .

“Fakorede first tried to lure INEC staff to travel with him from Port Harcourt to Emohua LGA, under the pretext of enabling them to collate results.

“But, for the intervention of National Commissioners, we suspect that he would have put our staff in harm’s way. When he failed in his initial bid, he stalked the INEC officials to the collation centre in Port Harcourt and physically assaulted Dr. C. Odekpe and Mrs. Mary Tunkayo. In fact, Dr. Odekpe ended up with a gash on his head and both spent days at the Air Force hospital in Port Harcourt.

“The security situation was worsened in some areas by the activities of political thugs and militants. Etche, Akoku-Toru and Emohua are examples of areas where both the security operatives and the militants caused serious mayhem…”

On alleged partisanship of INEC staff, the report said “there were very credible allegations that members of staff at the INEC office in Port Harcourt were split between the two main political parties in the state, namely, the ruling PDP and the APC.

The report stated: “It was clear that confidential information, including documents, was routinely leaked to political parties from the INEC office.

“The REC, Administrative Secretary and several EOs, in their depositions to this committee, confirmed these widespread accusations of partisanship.

Among other things, this created a deep crisis of confidence that affected administration of election.”

Meanwhile, INEC said it was yet to receive the official report of the police investigative panel on the December 10, 2016, legislative rerun elections in Rivers.

The commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

The panel’s report, submitted to police authorities on February 7, 2017, indicted 23 electoral officers for allegedly collecting monetary inducements to rig the elections.

Out of over N360 million said to have been received by the INEC personnel, the panel publicly displayed N111 million which it recovered from the officials who participated in the polls.

lalasticlala

Nukualofa:
Amaechi hs always being a loseer and will continue to lose.



What a dimwit

Islie:


Security operatives were accused of having actively participated in electoral offences. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had written a petition against security agencies.

With the INEC report, he has been vindicated.

The INEC report said: “As part of preparations for the elections, the entire 23 Electoral Officers (EOs) in the state were replaced with new ones from Plateau, Anambra and Oyo states. They all reported in Rivers State on November 28, 2016 and were posted accordingly to the local government areas.


•Gov Wike vindicated


http://sunnewsonline.com/rivers-rerun-inec-panel-indicts-security/

But, the most mind-boggling were cases of hostage-taking, hijack of materials and physical attacks on INEC officials perpetrated by security operatives. Of singular note was a certain policeman named Akin Fakorede, who ostensibly is a commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in Rivers .

“Fakorede first tried to lure INEC staff to travel with him from Port Harcourt to Emohua LGA, under the pretext of enabling them to collate results

frankwyte:
A bit off sanity is playing down now in Nigeria because Buhari is ostensibly absent. what it means is that some people close to Buhari are the once holding this country ransom. Quite shameful to say the least!

Nukualofa:
Amaechi hs always being a loseer and will continue to lose.

What a dimwit

frankwyte:
A bit off sanity is playing down now in Nigeria because Buhari is ostensibly absent. what it means is that some people close to Buhari are the once holding this country ransom. Quite shameful to say the least!

scribble:





Dollarization Of The APC Primaries: How Amaehi Vanquished Atiku #saibuhari

The blogosphere was inundated with reports of the excessive sharing of dollars at the All Progressives Congress which took place during the latter part of last week.

One APC supporter and Special Adviser to Osun Governor on Environment, BolaIlori had blown the scandal open after he saw the beginning stages of the dollarization in action.

He took to his Facebook page and scribbled, “Crazy things are happening here!!! Some of these cannot represent the change Nigeria is yearning for. Excessive dollarization by one of the aspirants to is to say the least obscene. I have been involved in political process for decades now, I have never witnessed this volume of raw dollarization of party primaries. I only read about this kind of things in PDP primaries. A question been asked by conscientious delegates is that whoever can be giving out between $2000 to $5000 to…delegates certainly does not represent the kind of change Nigerians want…those who contributed to the pauperization of Nigeria now revel in dollarization… majority of Ondo delegates are still standing with Buhari but have been reduced from 85% to 70% within 24 hours…the remaining has gone with dollars ooo.!!!!!”

One has to wonder how Buhari was able to win the primaries in this era of stomach infrastructure where dollars are like the Biblical manna that God sent down from heaven to nourish the Israelites as they made their way to the promised land.

Sources close to the APC with knowledge of the way the Primaries unfolded have revealed that it was Rivers State Governor, Amaechi who flew back to Rivers State and returned to Lagos on Thursday morning with enough dollars to make Benjamin Franklin blush.

It has been revealed that Atiku offered the delegates $5000 each, but Amaechi doubled it to $10000 a pop. Thus turning the tables in favour of General Buhari.

Since his adventure into the APC, Amaechi has gone out of his way to prove himself a party loyalist, always the first to shoki or azonto at the many events the APC holds, which he himself is usually the chief sponsor.

According to party insiders, Amaechi has overtaken Tinubu as the major financier of the party. One does not need to wonder why he is always at President Jonathan’s throat over misappropriated oil wells or other such business. Anything that diminishes from the State’s coffers will have a ripple effect on his funding budget for the APC.



Joe Francis wrote in from Port Harcourt.


http://www.theheraldng.com/dollarization-apc-primaries-amaehi-vanquished-atiku-saibuhari/

omaguibu:
The report was balanced in thr first two paragraphs and twisted in the last two paragraphs. You can all read it again.

GenBuhari:
So report is twisted.

ehissi:


No! It's balanced, INEC indicted both itself and the police as well directly but political parties indirectly.

Police Indicted PDP and claimed that Woke tried to use his Police Aides to rig hence they withdrew them.

But INEC insists that people who were specifically nominated to provide security joined in unwholesome practices which is similar to what wicked wike was saying......