An independent election monitoring international observer
details the anomalies that void the elections held in Rivers state.
Here are the details.
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.
The full interim reports reads:
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
1. 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 include 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.
2. 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 material 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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 elections, and protect the future of democracy and livelihood
of citizens in an accountable manner.
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