INEC must show list of collation officers, Wike insists

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been challenged to be transparent in its handling of the list of Collation Officers that would be used for the December 10 e016 rerun elections in Rivers State.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, criticized the Commission for refusing to be open with the process of putting the team of electoral officers togeghter.

The governor was speaking in Andoni and Opobo-Nkoro Local Government Areas on Tuesday while flagging off the rehabilitation of General Hospitals in Opobo and Ngo and the completion of Ogoni Andoni-Opobo-Nkoro Unity Road.

Wike alleged that INEC was keeping the list of collation officers secret, so that it would use members of the All Progressive Congress, APC, for the strategic role. He called on the electorate not to be intimidated by the plot by the Police, INEC and APC to use state violence to intimidate voters and cart away election materials.

He noted that some constituencies were declared inconclusive during the March 19 Rerun elections because APC members appointed as Collation Officers by INEC fled when they realised that PDP was winning.

The governor urged INEC to release the list of collation officers for public scrutiny for transparency and accountability.

Wike charged: “INEC must make the list of collation officers public. No matter what INEC does, the list of collation officers must be known.

“We must remain vigilant. After voting, women should go home, while youths should remain to protect votes from the polling units to the collation centres. The youths must wait until the results are announced and party agents in possession of declared results.

“Nobody should intimidate you with security agents. How many persons can they kill? How many people can they beat up? We must defend our votes”.

The governor declared: “On December 10, we shall drive Satan, the Lucifer and his devilish agents from Rivers State. These are the people who embezzled Rivers money, used the funds to sponsor national politics. Saturday, December 10 is their day of reckoning.

“Satan will disappear from Rivers on Saturday. Why would someone hate his people so much that he teams up with outsiders to cause them pain?”

Governor Wike announced that he remained committed to peace. He pointed out that he had been making public statements on the elections and negative plots of APC, because he believed that by alerting the world, the APC leaders, Police and INEC, plotting to rig would be called to order.

He called on the International community to assist in stopping APC from using security agencies to rig the rerun elections alongside INEC.