Keep December 10 rerun date sacrosanct, Rivers Deputy Governor tells INEC
Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt
Worried by the spate of postponements of the Rivers State rerun elections, the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr. (Mrs.) Ipalibo Harry Banigo, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure that the December 10 date remained sacrosanct.
In a statement on Sunday, Dr. Banigo said that the call has become necessary in view of the “callous manner” in which INEC has been postponing the rerun election in the State.
Dr. Banigo stated that the inability of INEC to conduct the rerun election earlier has denied the affected constituents their representations at both the State and National Assemblies and emphasized the need for INEC to be more proactive and be alive to its responsibilities in order to debunk insinuations that it was being manipulated.
The Deputy Governor who described the recent arrest of a syndicate engaged in the printing of fake INEC result sheets in Port Harcourt as most worrisome and shameful, decried the situation where the commission has allegedly been collaborating with the opposition to truncate the democratic process in Rivers State.
She further called on INEC to demonstrate neutrality in the conduct of the December 10, 2016 to prove to skeptics that it had the capacity to deliver a credible, free, and fair election in the State.
Dr. Banigo urged security agencies that would be involved in the conduct of the rerun election to ensure that they provided security to guard against election violence being perpetrated by those who did not want the election conducted for fear of losing it.
