16 political parties demand removal of Rivers REC

The coalition of the parties accused the state’s REC alongside INEC’s Head of Operations in the state, Engineer Bocco Ekong of conniving with Wike to ensure his victory at the polls on Saturday. The parties therefore called on the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega to quickly redeploy the state’s REC if the integrity of the […]

The coalition of the parties accused the state’s REC alongside INEC’s Head of Operations in the state, Engineer Bocco Ekong of conniving with Wike to ensure his victory at the polls on Saturday.
The parties therefore called on the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega to quickly redeploy the state’s REC if the integrity of the polls is to be protected.
But spokesperson of the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu told Daily Trust that the commission had no issues whatsoever with the Rivers REC.
The coalition included Mega Progressive People’s Party (MPPP), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Action Alliance (AA) United Democratic Party (UDP), All Progressives Alliance (APA), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM).
Others were the All Progressives Congress (APC), Independent Democrats (ID), People for Democratic Change (PDC), Allied Congress Party Of Nigeria (ACPN), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Accord Party (AP) as well as Advance Congress of Democrats (ACD).
The chanting protesters stormed the commission as early as 7am that saw the reinforcement of armed security personnel, who formed layers of barricades in an unusual effort to bar protesters from accessing the INEC premises.
APC National Vice Chairman, South-South, Hilliard Eta, the party’s chairman in Rivers State, Nonju ibisiki and Emoha local government council chairman, Nnamdi Abaha in separate chats with journalists alleged that as a REC, Mrs Khan has facilitated the disbursement of funds given by Wike to each Electoral Officer.
In their petition, a copy of which was seen by Daily Trust, the coalition referred to APC’s incipient petition that called for the cancellation of March 28 presidential and national assembly elections in Rivers State.
INEC’s director of security services, Shettima Ngillada who received the leaders of the protesting parties assured them that their petition would be looked into be the electoral body.