Governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Rivers State, Sen Magnus Abe, has revealed that policemen worked with officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to cart away election materials during the just-concluded governorship and house of assembly elections.
Abe, who made the revelation while speaking on a live television programme which was monitored in Port Harcourt, the state capital, said the election was trailed by violence and intimidation of the electorate.
He stated that the results for Ahoada-West local government area of the state was never collated in the LGA due to violence, adding that the results were later collated at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt by persons who are not staff of the commission.
The SDP governorship candidate said, “The election was crowded and marred with violence, intimidation, shooting and attacks. And if you didn’t have personal courage, you couldn’t even move around to share, neither could people even come out to hear you.
“In Ahoada-West, for example, there was no collation. The entire exercise was marred by violence. The collation officers ran away up till the next day, and the electoral officer kept calling for permission to cancel the election. It was never allowed.
“At the end of the day, the election results were moved to the INEC head office and collated there by unknown persons in the absence of other agents and with result sheets from where nobody can ascertain and those results were accepted by INEC.
“When you talk of the police, there are several videos of policemen following PDP officials around the state, hijacking ballot boxes and carrying away electoral materials. Not one of them was apprehended by the police officers who followed them around.
“Sometimes six or seven truck-loads of police officers would be following one official around, carrying away electoral materials. The only people arrested for electoral offences are members of the SDP. They are the only ones still in the state CID as we speak. And what are the offences? Oh, you are wearing the wrong tag. Oh, your tag does not show your picture.
“All sorts of frivolous reasons, and then they’re sitting there trying to cook up cases against them on the instructions of the governor. It is only SDP members that were arrested for electoral offences in Rivers State. The only person arrested for vote-buying in Rivers State was an SDP member.”
