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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has described as mischievous the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to shift the date of collation of the governorship and House of Assembly results in the state to April.
Spokesperson of the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi faction of the party, Mr. Chris Finebone, said as a major stakeholder in Rivers State political space, the APC received with mixed feelings INEC’s timeline for concluding the governorship and state House of Assembly elections that started on March 9, 2019.
“INEC has not shown sufficient good faith in the way it brought the collation to an abrupt without cogent, verifiable and convincing reasons. It went ahead to announce that collation for 17 local councils had been concluded as against the records provided by our situation room. And INEC refused, failed or neglected to name the councils where it claimed collation had been concluded,” he said.
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Finebone, whose faction was barred by a Rivers State High Court following a dispute within the party, said INEC curiously announced that it has dropped four collation officers confirmed to be PDP card-carrying members without the umpire clearing the air about the status of the local council results the four ad-hoc personnel supposedly collated.
“So, many questions come to mind. Could the four collation officers be unfit for the job while the collation they conducted is acceptable? Of course, that cannot be! Why is INEC jittery or afraid to name the 17 local councils if not for the simple reason that some underhand dealings might have taken place for which it is covering up?” he asked.
