Victor EzejaThe Labour Party has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to outrightly cancel results declared in Rivers State for the presidential and national assembly elections held on Saturday 25th February 2023.
The party made the call in a statement released on Sunday signed by its National Chairman, Barr Julius Abure.
The party accused Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, of using security agents to force electoral officials to alter the results to favour his preferred candidate against the original outcomes in various polling units and wards where the Labour Party won.
The statement reads:
“The leadership of the Labour Party is shocked by the revelations emanating from Rivers State after the presidential and national assembly elections which were held on Saturday; where thugs believed to be agents of the state government invaded various polling units and collation centres, took away election materials including the results sheets, manipulated the BVAS machines and uploaded fake results into the Central portal.
“We took particular note of incidences in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro and several other areas where Labour Party was clearly leading in virtually all the polling units with very wide margins. Governor Nyesom Wike, faced with stark reality of defeat even in the polling units in his compound in Worji, where LP scored 323 votes against APC and PDP’s 5 and 2 votes respectively, used the soldiers and police to intimidate, harassed and snatched ballot papers.
“Nigerians went into this election based on the assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC that the deployment of BIVAS was a perfect antidote to electoral malpractices in Nigeria, but what transpired across Nigeria, if allowed to stand is purely a betrayal of trust by millions of Nigerians on INEC.
“INEC’s staff were intimidated by these thugs in connivance with the military personnel and police officers who were deployed to protect them, into doing their bidding and were forced to manipulate the BIVAS, being afraid of the consequences of their refusal. Some of these manipulations happened way into late night. We demand that INEC investigate these atrocities against Nigerian voters by the political class.
“We are therefore asking that INEC should rise to the occasion and cancel all the unverified and manipulated results arising from the presidential and national assembly elections in parts of Rivers state, particularly in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo and Rumukoro amongst others.”
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