LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered from some chieftains of the party that some of the documents, already been published by several online media, alleged that the number of votes allotted to the governorship candidate of the PDP and governor-elect, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike, was five times higher than the number of accredited voters during the election.
Four governorship candidates, including Kemka Elenwo of KOWA Party; Dakuku Peterside of All Progressives Congress (APC); Charles Harry of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); and Minaibim Harry of Social Democratic Party (SDP), are currently challenging the victory of Wike before the State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja.
The result declared by the Returning Officer for Rivers State, Osasere Orumwense on April 13, said Mr. Wike scored 1,029,102 votes, representing 87.77 per cent of 1,228,614 of total accredited voters.
This contradicts a 94-page INEC document which puts the total number of accredited voters for the April 11 governorship election in Rivers State at 292, 878.
The document was allegedly signed by Ibrahim Bawa, the acting director in charge of INEC Legal Unit and Abimbola Oladunjoye, head of unit, Data Management, of the Commission’s Information Communication Technology Department.
Following these revelations and insinuations that the Election Tribunal might rely on it to throw out the governor-elect, many of the PDP leaders have been making subterranean moves to organise to condemn the documents as unreliable.
As tension got to a peak yesterday and sensing that the alleged “facts” could lead to a breakdown of law and order, the governor-elect, Nyessom Wike moved to douse tension by issuing a statement.
In it, Wike urge supporters of PDP to discountenance the documents and figures being bandied in the social media.
The statement, signed by Wike’s Personal Assistant on Media, Simon Nwakaudu, said the figures were part of a ploy designed by the APC in the state to use discredit the credible electioneering process in the state.
The statement reads in part, “Our attention has been drawn to false figures being circulated on the Rivers State Governorship election by a prominent APC online medium and their associates. We urge all the good people of Rivers State and other Nigerians to disregard these figures.
“This is part of a devilish design by the defeated APC in Rivers State to use their sponsored media associates to discredit the credible electioneering process in the State.
“The Rivers APC had earlier used sponsored fake international observers to promote similar falsehood days after the election. The latest falsehood by the APC online medium is therefore expected.
“We urge Rivers people to remain calm despite the deliberate falsehood being sponsored by the defeated APC in the state. The mandate they freely gave to Barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike ( CON ) will be defended against the enemies of democracy in the state. Their propaganda failed during the election, it will fail them again.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Rivers State Governorship election was free, fair, credible and a reflection of the will of the people of the state. The National Chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega has attested to this alongside members of the independent media and election observers.”
The Rivers State chapter of the APC had demanded the cancellation of the results of the State governorship and State House of Assembly elections in the state.
The party also sought for the conduct of fresh elections.
In a petition dated April 12 to the Chairman of INEC Attahiru Jega, the party alleged that the Commission’s officials colluded with security operatives to compromise the integrity of the electoral process in virtually all the 23 local government areas of the state.
The APC alleged in the petition, signed by its chairman, Davies Ibiamu.
The party noted that, “Majority of voters were disenfranchised and the will subverted because the INEC officials were compromised. A number of INEC officials apprehended with cash inducement received from the PDP Governorship candidate who allegedly paid N20,000,000 (Twenty Million Naira) as bribe to each Electoral Officer.
“It will be unconscionable to allow the outcome of a process so outrageously flawed to stand. The only fair and just conclusion that can and ought to be reached in the circumstance is that no elections took place in Rivers State.”
The party said there were no elections in four local government areas, namely Abua Odual, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru and Gokana, because materials for the conduct of the polls were either destroyed in the cause of violence or the materials were never delivered to the polling units.
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