TheCable

The African Action Congress (AAC) says it is suspecting a connivance between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, in manipulating results from the governorship election in Rivers state.

The election was suspended due to violence and invasion of the state collation center by soldiers.

But on Saturday announced that it was set to complete the process as the commission had results from 17 local government areas in its custody.

Reacting in a statement, Felix Enimini William, AAC’s publicity secretary in the state, said his party is surprised and disappointed that INEC “deliberately refused” to name the 17 local government areas.

“We suspect that INEC might be working to surreptitiously bring in cooked up results credited to Obio/Akpor to skew the balance of reality of things in favour of Wike,” he said.

“We vehemently reject this and will resist it with everything pint of blood in us.

“It is now clear to all that INEC has become deaf and blind to the fact that Gov. Nyesom Wike invaded the Obio/Akpor collation centre and ordered his security men to shoot an Army Captain and another soldier providing perimeter security to the collation centre. The Captain and his colleague are still in hospital after undergoing serious surgery.

“We ask: Is it so difficult for INEC to name the 17 LGAs? If INEC has agreed and accepted that 4 collation officers are card-carrying members of PDP and INEC have now sanctioned them, what happens to the results they collated having not been qualified to do so ab initio?”

The party asked the commission to declare Biokpomabo Awara, AAC governorship candidate in the election, the winner.

William added that it was glaring that their candidate was winning until INEC stepped in to halt the process to save Wike from defeat.

“Finally, those (including Gov. Wike) who make the argument that our party and candidate are not popular enough to win the Rivers State governorship election are simply being clever by half. Can the governor and his ilk also say that APC that threw its weight behind us, for obvious reasons, are not popular and on ground in Rivers State?” he said.

Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, had declared his support for the AAC candidate, but the party leadership distanced itself from the endorsement.