The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has broken its silence on the ongoing protest by political parties to inspect the electoral materials and the Certified True Copies (CTC) of documents used in conducting the just-concluded general election in Rivers State.
Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by its governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, started the protest, which was later joined by some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Members of the two parties clashed on Monday, causing bloodshed and destruction of properties in Port Harcourt, thee state capital, with Cole saying he was attacked and injured by rival political thugs.
While Cole and other APC chieftains stayed away from the streets yesterday, different groups of PDP members held protests in front of INEC’s office.
A PDP group, dominated by women, stormed the commission’s office, demanding that the party must jointly partake in the inspection of materials used in the election.
Some House of Assembly members, including House Leader Martins Amawhule, Deputy Speaker Edison Ehie, and the Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area, Samuel Nwanosike, joined the protest.
They demanded immediate arrest of Cole for alleged murder, saying the APC candidate’s attack on them on Monday resulted in the death of one person.
The protesters also said the party had submitted a petition to the Commissioner of Police for Cole’s arrest and prosecution.
They brandished a copy of the PDP’s petition, dated March 24, where they demanded that INEC should release the CTC of electoral materials.
The protesters threatened to sustain the protest to avoid a repeat of the 2016 scenario in which evidence from the police was used to cancel the electoral victories of the PDP at the Appeal Court and a similar situation in Imo State.
But the protest took a dramatic twist when another group, led by a suspected native doctor in full regalia, performed a sacrifice in front of the INEC office.
Speaking in Ikwerre dialect, one of the protesters said: “We are Ikwerre, the owners of Rivers State. We have other tribes, like Kalabari, Abua, and others. We won all the votes here. If we won it justly, then we will enjoy our victory. If we didn’t win it, let them take their victory.”
After the incantations, the suspected native doctor poured libation on the ground where some palm fronds were also laid, and he then walked away.
