Rivers Rerun: Gov Wike Commends INEC over Conduct of Saturday’s Election

Governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike has commended the Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) for turning a new leaf in the conduct of Saturday’s rerun election in Etche/Omuma Federal and State constitu­encies.
Wike, who spoke on the development at a church ser­vice on Sunday, declared that for the first time, INEC had gotten it right in its conduct of elections in the state.

He said that by the sin­gular act, he was giving the electoral body a thumbs up, adding that the election also witnessed minimal deploy­ment of security agencies to enforce law and order dur­ing elections.
The election into the House of Representatives’ seat was won by Jerome Eke of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Jeremiah Sola-Omo­tola, announced Eke as the winner of the contest at the commission’s office in Port Harcourt on Sunday.
He said that Eke secured 15,221 votes to defeat Og­bonna Nwuke of the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) who got 6,220 votes.
The PDP also won the Etche State Constituency II election with 4,162 votes while the APC garnered 1,618 votes.
The state chapter of the PDP hailed the people of Etche and Omuma for vot­ing for the party during the elections.
Its Chairman, Mr. Felix Obuah, who congratulated the people on Sunday, said even in the face of harass­ment, intimidation, attacks, maiming and alleged ar­rests of innocent PDP mem­bers by men of the Nigerian Army and the Police, Etche/Omuma people still voted for their chosen leaders
He described the in­volvement of the military and men of the Nigeria Po­lice in electoral process as “worrisome, condemnable and portends great danger for Nigeria’s democracy.”
The PDP regretted that soldiers and policemen de­ployed to maintain peace and security in Etche alleg­edly invaded collation cen­tres to stop the announce­ment of results but were resisted by the people.
Obuah said: “We con­gratulate candidates of the PDP, Chief Jerome Eke, Etche/Omuma Federal Con­stituency and Hon. Tony Ejiogu, Etche State Con­stituency 2 for emerging vic­torious, and the good people of Etche/Omuma for voting for the PDP.”
However, PDP has de­scribed the arrest of its Pub­licity Secretary, Hon. Samuel Nwanosike, Hon. Rowland Sekibo and other chieftains of the party who were on a legal election duty as pro­vocative, illegal, condemn­able and acting on the order of a leader of the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC).
Meanwhile the APC has called on INEC not to con­tradict itself in announcing the results of Etche/Omuma elections.
The state APC Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, in a statement he issued on Sunday in Port Harcourt, said that the elections were formally declared inconclu­sive by the Returning Of­ficers, Prof. Olatunbosun Odusanya and Prof. Omo­tola respectively, at Okehi on Saturday.
“They (Returning Of­ficers) subsequently an­nounced that the conclu­sion of the process will take place today (Sunday) or on Monday,” the statement said.
Finebone said that the party said was taken aback by signals indicating that Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, the National Electoral Com­missioner in charge of Riv­ers, ordered that the results of the inconclusive elections should be announced.
He reminded INEC that in line with the relevant sec­tions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), only the returning Officers were em­powered to announce results of elections.