Can it be said that free, fair, transparent and credible elections held in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states last Saturday? It is regrettable that this question cannot be answered in the affirmative. In Rivers State, for instance, the exercise was characterised by widespread violence as well as intimidation and arrest of scores of top politicians, mainly of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Scores of APC members were killed in various parts of the state by rampaging gun men. It has been alleged that armed militias operating freely and with impunity were responsible for these acts of barbarity. At least 100 members of the party were arrested and prevented from participating in the election across the state. Surely, this is not an atmosphere in which acceptable elections could be said to have taken place.
Rivers State had been a theatre of violence ever before last Saturday’s election. In virtually all cases, the APC had been the target. For instance, the party’s secretariat was bombed in three local government areas (LGAs) of the state. A delegation of the party’s members travelling from Okrika, the home town of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to attend the APC presidential campaign in Port Harcourt was shot at and scores wounded. And in the same Okrika, unknown gun men opened fire on the crowd of APC supporters who had gathered to attend the governorship campaign of the party’s candidate, Mr Dakuku Peterside. A few days before the March 28 polls, Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s convoy was shot at, with the police absurdly blaming the incident on the governor’s security aides.
In all of these cases, there was no arrest of even a single perpetrator of the acts of violence. This laxity on the part of the security agencies no doubt encouraged the level of violence witnessed during last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections. Indeed, given the clear indication that Rivers State would be a likely flashpoint of tension and violence during the election, why weren’t the security agents better prepared to combat hoodlums and ensure that an atmosphere for peaceful elections was created? What was the purpose of the massive deployment of security personnel for the election purportedly to check violence and maintain peace and order? Can it not be credibly inferred that the security agencies actually provided the opportunity for the gangsters to operate with impunity in Rivers State?
Even more seriously, the election in Rivers State was clearly not conducted in accordance with the electoral law and is thus devoid of both legality and legitimacy. For one, vital electoral materials, including result sheets, were reportedly distributed from the personal residences of top Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, including the party’s governorship candidate, Chief NyesomWike as well as Tele Ikuru, the deputy governor of the state who recently defected to the PDP. Furthermore, in many areas, opposition party agents were driven away from the polling centres and thus could not observe the process and protect their party’s interest. Other illegal acts included distribution of over 40,000 incident forms at Oyigbo Local Government Area by a PDP chieftain, sudden change of trained ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and their replacement with untrained ones, as well as the open parading of Permanent Voters Cards in their possession by some top leaders of the PDP.
Perhaps the most dramatic incident of the election in Rivers State was Governor Amaechi’s refusal to vote. His reason was the refusal of the electoral officials to produce result sheets and their inability to offer any plausible reason for this inexplicable situation. Indeed, the non-availability of result sheets at the polling units as required by law was reportedly a common feature across Rivers State. Ordinarily, all voting materials must be present at the polling unit and shown to the electorate to guarantee the transparency of the process. The result sheet is very vital to the electoral process. It is the document on which the results of the voting are recorded and signed by the various party agents. If the result sheets are not available at the polling unit, then arbitrary figures contrary to the outcome of the actual will of the electorate can be filled in by unscrupulous electoral officials in collusion with desperate politicians.
It is most unfortunate that the impunity witnessed in Rivers State before and during this election, has taken place with attention of the whole world focussed on Nigeria. The perpetrators of these acts have done grave harm to the image of the country. The scale of electoral impunity in Rivers State in particular but also in Akwa Ibom State was vividly captured by one of the electoral observers, Ibrahim Zikrullah of the Transitional Monitoring Group (TMG). In his words, “I think the election was generally fair. Of course, we have Rivers State, where the election did not meet minimal standards of any recognised election. The state security took over the role of INEC. They were beating up people, smashing ballots and falsifying results”.
And on the election in Akwa Ibom State, he said “In Akwa Ibom State, observers were chased away. Two of our observers were arrested. They were released late at night. Even when they could not find anything criminal about them, and they were identified by INEC, the police insisted that they should pay bribes … And people were chased away. Party agents were chased from the polling units and at the end of the day, results were declared in some poling units”.
There is no doubt that the credibility of the polls in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states has been incurably tainted. We urge Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman who has proven to be a man of integrity to see that the charade paraded as elections in these states and any other one where such occurrences are reported are thoroughly investigated and urgent remedial measures taken to protect electoral justice and integrity. It is important to do this before the governorship and state houses of assembly elections in two weeks’ time.
