The two men claiming victory in the March 9 inconclusive governorship election in Rivers State met face to face yesterday in Port Harcourt, launching straight into diatribe on who between them should be sworn in on May 29.

Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who is seeking a second term, and Biokpomabo Awara of the African Action Congress (AAC), met at a stakeholders meeting convened by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the planned made-up election to determine the next governor of the state.

Awara accused Wike and INEC of doctoring results of the bloody governorship and House of Assembly elections of March 9 in the state while the governor countered by saying the AAC candidate and his backers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) were promoting violence and scaring investors from the state.

The AAC candidate said he was “surprised that the leaders of political parties involved in the elections were not asked questions by members of INEC’s five-man fact-finding committee.”

He added: “I doubt the reliability of the doctored result sheets and other electoral materials with INEC in the last three weeks. We have record of some of the results being mutilated, particularly that of Akuku-Toru LGA.

“REC of INEC in Rivers State has refused to give reasons for changing the four compromised electoral officers of the commission, who lack integrity for being card-carrying members of PDP.

“If the violence made the March 9 elections not to be credible, according to INEC, where did the commission get results for the 17 LGAs of Rivers 23 LGAs in the INEC’s possession?

“At what point did the elections become violence-free, for the commission to now have results for 17 LGAs? Why has INEC refused to release the results of the 17 LGAs it claims to have and the remaining six LGAs it wants to do supplementary election?”

Wike faulted Awara for suggesting that the state was violent.

“I do not agree that Rivers is a violent state. Rivers State has never and it will not be a violent State,” he fired back.

Continuing, he said: “the problem we have in this country, when people start to raise the alarm, over things that may likely happen, most of the things we always say, they are always crying. “Why are they raising too much alarm? What causes violence? Why is there violence each time there is election? The only way to have peaceful elections is when the security agencies refuse to interfere or manipulate any process.

“How did people die? When INEC would go and collate results and people would resist and when people resist, they will shoot them.

“Rivers is not a violent state. It is most unfortunate that people would leave their state, come to another state, instead of them to make sure what obtains in their state obtains here, they do not want it, they want to cause problems for us.

“With all due respect, the Garrison Commander (Brig.-Gen. Adeola Kalejaiye) is here. Throughout my political career of not less than 30 years, I have never experienced the type of roles the army played. We must tell people the simple truth…”

The National Commissioner of INEC in charge of Rivers, Bayelsa and Edo States, Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, who chaired the stakeholders’ meeting in the absence of INEC chairman Professor Mahmoud Yakubu urged Rivers residents to allow peace to reign before, during and after the activities outlined for the conclusion of the controversial elections.

She said that the elections were suspended on March 10, due to the high-level of violence that occurred during the March 9, 2019 polls in Rivers.

Also in attendance at yesterday’s meeting ahead of the Tuesday resumption of collation of results of the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly elections, was the Garrison Commander of 6 Division Garrison, Brig.-Gen. Adeola Kalejaiye who stood in for the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division of the Army, Port Harcourt, Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham.

Others were the State Commissioner of Police, Usman Belel, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in Rivers, Mr. Obo Effanga, who was represented by the Administrative Secretary in the state, Elder Etim Umoh, the state Chairman of PDP, Chief Felix Obuah; Ledum Mitee of Initiative for Credible Elections (ICE), representatives of the Navy, Air Force, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Customs, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), as well as top politicians and other eminent personalities were also in attendance.

•Excerpted from The Nation report