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The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike, has dismissed the claims of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that there were irregularities in the electoral process.
The APC had written to the Independent National Electoral Commission requesting for the cancellation of the election in Rivers State. The party cited cases of irregularities in the process.
On Saturday, the Governor of the State, Chibuike Amaechi, had asked the electoral officials in his polling unit to show him the result sheet before he would vote. The officials were unable to produce the result sheet. The Governor refused to vote, saying he will only vote after he has seen the result sheet.
“Very Unfortunate”
In a telephone interview on Monday, Mr Wike said the claims of the APC in Rivers State was “very unfortunate”.
“It is what we have been preaching against that politicians should imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship.
“It is not a do or die affair. I have had the comments of the governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside, of the APC and I am surprised that he can say that.
“The problem we have here is that their Governor is a director general of Buhari’s campaign organisation and his party expected that, as a governor, he should be able to win the election in Rivers State,” he said.
He said that the argument of the Governor that there was no result sheet should not be a sign that the electoral process was flawed.
“The argument of the Governor is that there was no result sheet but not that people did not come out to participate.
“The governor told all his supporters to withdraw from the election because there was no result sheet.
“Everybody knows that the APC will not win election in Rivers State,” he claimed.
In the heat of a protest by members of the APC against the conduct of the elections, the Executive Director of Contact Project, Jennifer Lynne, believes that presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State were indeed compromised.
Ms Lynne, an international observer monitoring the Nigerian presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State, said that over the course of Saturday, she, along with the multinational civil society observation team had the opportunity to move across Port Harcourt, the state capital and observe several of the polling units.
Mr Wike, however, dismissed the reports by foreign observers of intimidation of voters, saying his political party never intimidated any voter during the election.
“It is not enough to say there was voters’ intimidation. They should identify the party that has committed the intimidation. If she says electoral materials were hijacked, she should state which party was involved,” Mr Wike requested, referring to foreign observer.
“We should be very careful about what the foreign observers say.”
He claimed that the call for cancellation of the election in the state was because the Governor of the State could not influence the system to benefit his political party.
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