In the results so far declared by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, the PDP cleared three federal constituency, but shared two state constituency seats with its main rival, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While speaking with journalists, Wednesday, the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, alleged that the electoral body was taking instruction from the ruling party, APC, on what to do with the outcome of the rerun elections which he claimed his party won overwhelmingly.
Secondus said: “Now in Rivers, State, because PDP won all the election, despite the intimidation by the military, the results are being released piecemeal because APC has failed woefully in all the constituencies.”
The PDP chairman, who accused INEC of turning itself to a parastatal of the APC further alleged that the commission has not fixed a date for fresh election because it was waiting for instruction from APC.
“They haven’t fixed a date for rerun because of APC. INEC is now being supervised by the leadership of APC and the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“They are no longer independent and we are losing confidence in INEC. In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) election date was announced but suddenly because they knew APC was going to lose and because of that, they postponed the election after we had spent money and time.
“All these show that INEC is now a parastatal of APC. The danger is that this current leadership that will conduct the general elections in 2019 has been compromised.
“The forthcoming Edo and Ondo States governorship elections are in danger. With what happened in Rivers State Nigeria is in danger. “There may be no election in 2019 with the way INEC is conducting itself as a parastatal of INEC,” Secondus said.
But reacting in a telephone interview, INEC Deputy Director of Publicity and Voters’ Education, Nick Dazang, justified the piecemeal announcement of results.
“The commission is not under the influence or direction of any party/interests,” he said.
On his part, Chairman of Rivers State chapter of the PDP, Felix Obuah, said the party would not accept the disqualification of its candidate for Akuku-Toru state constituency 2, Tonye Awari Alalibo, describing it as not only illegal and mischievous, but highly vexatious.
“No Election Petition Tribunal nor the Election Appeal Tribunal, including the INEC has the power to disqualify any party candidate (as provided for in the 2012 Electoral Act as amended), and for which the PDP and its candidate for Akuku-Toru state constituency 2 are already in court.”
Obuah also said no election petition tribunal or appeal tribunal has right to disqualify any candidate, when the issue of disqualification was not part of the subject matter before both the election petition tribunal and appeal tribunal.
“Accordingly, INEC lacks powers to disqualify the PDP candidate. Therefore, the purported disqualification of our candidate for Akuku-Toru constituency 2, when the PDP logo was on the ballot paper and our candidate participated and won the election is preposterous,” he said.
He accused the APC of being responsible for the disqualification, adding that the party (APC) was doing everything possible to grab power.
The state PDP chairman called on the people of Akuku-Toru to remain calm and watch events as they unfold.
Similarly, Obuah described the “ceding of result of Opobo/Nkoro state assembly election to the APC” as a rape of democracy, adding that the results collated from the polling units in all the wards showed Hon. Adonye Diri of the PDP as the clear winner.
The PDP chairman accused INEC of colluding with the APC to satisfy its governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, whom he alleged mobilised soldiers on the day of the election and used them to chase away PDP agents, from the collation centre in Opobo.