Davidson Iriekpen writes that political tension has continue to be on the rise as the opposition All Progressives Congress and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party battle for the soul of Rivers State
The last governorship elections may have come and gone, but one state where the issue of who is the legal winner of the election has not been fully settled is Rivers State. While the PDP’s flagbearer, Mr Nyesom Wike , has been sworn in and has since being performing his duties as the executive governor, the opposition APC is still in court contesting Wike’s election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had after the election, directed the aggrieved to take their grievances to the Election Petitions Tribunal for adjudication, many analysts especially in the camp of PDP believe that rather than allow the tribunal to determine the case on merit, APC was making some secret moves to take over the state through illegal means.
The leadership of the ruling party in Rivers State has cited the invitation of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mrs. Gesila Khan, for interrogation by the Directorate of State Security (DSS), an organization that has nothing to do with the election. The party also cited the frequent changes of the chairman of the Rivers State tribunal as an example of intimidation by the APC controlled government at the federal level.
The act of the intimidation, to many, are happening despite the assertion by the then Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the allegations of malpractices in the general election in the state were exaggerated. For instance, speaking at the Civil Rights Situation Room in Abuja in April, Jega said contrary to the allegations of wide spread irregularities in the state, there was no evidence of such before the commission. He stated that the commission on getting the petition of irregularities, sent three national commissioners to investigate it, adding that the reports submitted by the team did not show irregularities in the election.
He said: “We have no power to cancel elections results once returns have been made. On the petition against election irregularities in Rivers State, the commission sent three national commissioners to the state to investigate it. Some people don’t want elections to hold. They are the ones calling for cancellation. We investigated the allegation of fake result sheets in Rivers. Our reports showed that there was nothing like that.”
Also, while in Washington DC recently, Jega equally disclosed that allegations that the elections in Rivers State were manipulated and flawed were exaggerated. He said the elections in the state were credible and the commission did the right thing by announcing the winner.
“We created a three man team to investigate the allegations of electoral malpractice, it was not true that elections didn’t take place in majority of the state, it was not true that results sheets were manipulated. There was no evidence of malpractice or photocopied result sheets, and no substantive evidence to establish alterations.
“Rivers has become quite a big issue, and we did our best to be able to have enough evidence to make an informed decision before results were returned. We received reports of fake results sheets, use of photocopied result sheet, substitution of trend of INEC personnel and allegation of no election taking place in some polling units. It came before we announced the results, so we immediately constituted a three-man team made up of national commissioners to go to Rivers State and investigate the allegations.
It was not true that elections did not take place in majority part of the state. In fact, the evidence was that in the overwhelming majority, election took place in most areas. It wasn’t true that there were fake result sheets; there were no photocopied results sheets. There was no substantive evidence to support the wild allegations.
“From our investigations we were satisfied that there was no substantive evidence to cancel the elections as agitated by some people, we also have people on ground and observers like TMG, and others who also gave us honest report about what happened.
“I don’t think there were massive irregularities as reported in Rivers State, my advice is that they should go to the tribunal, if they have evidence, On our own part we have done our thorough investigation. We have scanned 95 per cent of the results sheets from all the polling units and we will put them on our site once we get to 100 per cent.” I am not saying there is no irregularities, but not to the magnitude that has been reported,” he said.
It was against this background that members of the National Assembly from the state recently faulted the invitation of Khan by the DSS and other officials, and the panels handling petitions arising from the conduct of the 2015 elections in their state. The lawmakers accused the DSS of partisanship with the intention of influencing outcome of the matters before the tribunals. They raised the alarm over what they described as “creeping dictatorship,” and urged the DSS to limit itself to its role as an unbiased, non-partisan organisation with the aim of defending state security. The Rivers caucus specifically alleged that the security agency had recently resorted to intimidation of electoral officers connected with the handling of matters relating to the 2015 general election held in the state as well as the election petitions.
The leader of the caucus, Senator George Thompson-Sekibo, who addressed at a press conference in Abuja, noted that the functions of the DSS were limited to crimes bothering on internal security of the country such as the Boko Haram threat, but wondered why the agency is allegedly enmeshed in matters relating to election petitions in Rivers State. He accused the DSS of plotting to “witch-hunt, coerce and intimidate” electoral and judicial officers connected with the handling of the matters, saying the alleged arrest and detention of Khan was one too many. Giving insight into the matter, the senator disclosed that the Rivers State REC and her officers were orally invited to the DSS office in Abuja over a petition by a litigant at the election tribunal and she honoured the invitation with her senior officers on Tuesday 22, July 2015, “only for her to be arrested and detained till about 10pm on Wednesday, 23 July with further instructions to report to the DSS daily.”
According to Sekibo, “The invitation and subsequent arrest of Mrs. Khan followed the private visit of the ex-governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, to the Director of SSS on or about Tuesday, July 7, 2015. We are constrained to conclude that part of the script being played by the DSS is to concoct evidence in support of the petitioners’ case at the tribunal where the petitioners pleaded that they shall rely on security reports at the trial, particularly ‘the SSS report.’ It is also not a coincidence that the invitation to parties (INEC officers) came after the private visit of Amaechi to the Director of SSS on or about Tuesday the 7th day of July 2015. Shortly after his visit, Amaechi assured the petitioners that ‘the DSS is game.’”
The party said it had “concrete evidence that the APC administration in its desperation was set to transfer uncooperative tribunal judges and replace them with malleable ones to overturn PDP’s electoral victory in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Taraba and Delta States and hand them over to the APC.”
Addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said: “Following the insistence by some tribunal judges on delivering justice, despite the pressure being mounted by the APC government, machineries have been put in motion to influence the outcome of the judicial process by replacing them with those already briefed to do the bidding of the APC government.”
He further alerted that “part of the plot is to use the Department of State Security (DSS) and some unscrupulous officials of the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to tamper with official records of evidence and other electoral documents in INEC’s custody for presentation at the tribunals, which would be manned by the compromised judicial officials. We have uncovered an unholy alliance between the DSS and INEC to interfere directly in the activities of election tribunals in some PDP states by removing and altering some records in INEC and instigating the APC to insist that there were no elections in those states.”
The PDP scribe said after the elections, the former INEC Chairman, Jega, insisted and showed to the world that there were governorship elections in Rivers, Abia, Taraba, Akwa-Ibom and Delta States.
“The PDP insists that the judiciary should not be interfered with, and should be allowed to play its role in our democracy. The APC should stop harassing, intimidating or attempting to remove judges who are not responding to their dirty tricks We insist on the sanctity of the process and caution strongly that we will not accept any move by any person whatsoever to undermine the will of the people and rob us of our well-deserved electoral victory in these states,” the party said.
But while faulting the allegations, APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the PDP was throwing wild allegations against the tribunals in Rivers and other states because the party knows it stole the votes in those states. The party urged the PDP to stop denigrating the judiciary by suggesting that tribunal judges handling the various election petitions in some states can be influenced.
“The affected states are the cash cows of the PDP; hence the party is so jittery about losing the states, which they know they did not win in the first instance. We have confidence in the ability of the tribunals to carry out their duties diligently and without fear or favour. We implore the PDP to be charitable enough to repose the same confidence in the tribunals,’’ it said
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