PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
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By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
Against the backdrop of uncertainties over the conduct of local government elections in Rivers State, the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) on Saturday held one of the most peaceful elections in the state in recent times.
The election of chairmen for the 23 local government areas and councillors for the 319 wards of Rivers State was largely peaceful without reports of shootings, snatching of ballot boxes or disappearance of election results in the exercise in which 18 political parties participated.
Though the day started with the state branch of the All Progressives Congress APC, announcing that its secretariat along Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway was attacked by arsonists who sought to destroy it with dynamites.
Speaking on the attack, the Caretaker Committee chairman, Tony Okocha said it was second in recent times adding the the latest attack was uncalled for since his faction of the APC did not participate in the election.
He said the incident happened about 3:30am when his staff called him to notify him of the attack, adding that it was providence that prevented the complete destruction of the office apartment.
The explosion reportedly brought down the gate of the secretariat, while doors, windows and other property were destroyed.
The state Police Command through its spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, said it was aware of the attack and would later send its statement on the incident.
Okocha said; “this morning at about 3:30am my phone kept ringing and when I picked up, it was my admin notifying me that our office had been attacked with explosives and again, thank God that at least the DPO has come here to see what happened. The luck we have is that the one they threw at this particular spot did not detonate or this building would have gone down.
“This one is the second attempt after they did the first time, they came back to set this building ablaze. Thank goodness, this structure is a rented apartment and what do you think the landlord will be feeling right now?
“So we want to tell Nigerians that we are under attack, our leaders are differently chased by their soldiers, by this I mean un-uniformed soldiers. They are chasing us everywhere and we are not budging so what they decided to do is to come and destroy our party secretariat. There is no voting unit here, it’s strictly APC so why the attack here. This is the second time. Every time there is an event that the governor and his team are involved, APC will be marked as scape goat.
“So please help us to let Nigerians know that APC and her members need security from the federal to be able to keep everybody who is a member of the APC safe.
Also speaking, a chieftain of the APC and former member of the House of Representatives Promise Dike said; “It’s a needless attack because APC as a party made it very clear that we are not participating in this election therefore we shouldn’t have been seen as a hindrance to this election because we have said we are not going to participate”.
He queried; “So why destroy or coming to destroy the party secretariat? What kind of act is that? I don’t really understand why this should be happening in Rivers State, a state where everyone is in dire need of peace.
“You have seen the activities of APC in Rivers State. It has always been peaceful demonstrations, press conferences. There is no one incident that is link to the APC, of violence or attack on property or lives of Rivers people. So we believe and will continue to preach peace but the act of coming to destroy our party secretariat is going beyond what it should be. So we condemn this act in totality and implore security agencies to ensure that proper investigation is carried out and those linked to this attack will brought to book.
Meanwhile voting in the local council polls commenced in several locations as early 8:30 am with the caretaker Committee Chairman of Port Harcourt City Council, Chibunwo Ichemati casting his vote at his unit 12 ward 18 polling centre at about 8:45 am.
Reports from other parts of Port City, Obio/Akpor, Emohua, Ikwerre, Abua/Odual, Khana, Etche and Bonny has it that voting commenced early as election materials arrived most of the polling in good time.
And all of these have taken place without the presence of any security agency either on the road or at the polling centres. Only a handful of local vigilante personnel were noticed around some polling units, especially those with the Chairmanship candidates.
As at the time of filing in this report there has not been any report of violence from any of the 23 local government areas except for the protest organized by pro-Wike group which mobilised hundred of its supporters around Polo club to further insist on the illegality of the elections.
One Henry Bobmanuel, who spoke on behalf of the protesters said; “We are law abiding citizens, that’s why we are not participating in the elections, we gathered here to tell the world that there’s is no local council election in Rivers State.”
However, many voters turned out enmasse to cast their ballots at some polling units while some others witnessed scanty voters with the prevalence of peace across the various polling centers.
After casting his ballot, the Caretaker Committee chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government, and chairmanship candidate of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Chibunwo Ichemati spoke to journalists on the conduct of the elections.
He said; “So far, the election has been very peaceful, seemless, without fear or intimidation.
“This is the best election we have ever had in the LGA and the state at large; particularly the timely arrival and complete supply of electoral materials. This is the first time in the history of elections in the LGA that it was said that all materials deployed for the exercise got to the polling centres completely as assigned and equally on time.
“I cast my vote at about 8: am, I was among the first people to vote when the poll started by 8:00 am, this is about 12 noon now, the crowd of people who came out to participate in the exercise have all cast their votes, the place is peaceful and nobody is fighting anybody and there will be no fight at all by the gace of God.
On non-participation of the police in the exercise, he observed; “the absence of Police in this election is part of the reason election materials got to the centres early enough and without any skirmmishes.
“You can see how peaceful and cordial the atmosphere has been, how seemless materials are being transported from wards to polling units, onlike when Police used to participate in the exercise visibly; policemen harrassing voters, most times police are captured hijacking election materials, invading collation centres for the good of their paymasters.
“Non participation of the Nigerian Police Force was not felt in the exercise, in fact their presence would have caused harm to the election intead of good”, he said.
“This clearly is a sign that Rivers People have taken the security of their lives, state and property in their hands. If Rivers masses could peacefully conduct elections, without the intervention of the Nigerian Police Force, then we appeal that the Police, be permanently excused from election duties in the state”.
He thanked RSIEC for the good job of conducting a legacy election in the State, and urged INEC to borrow a leaf from them.
