Senator Abe Dismisses Rivers Judicial Commission on Election Violence
By Iyobosa Uwugiaren in Abuja
The candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the March 19 National Assembly re-run elections in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Abe, has dismissed the judicial commission of inquiry set up by the government of Rivers State to probe the violence that rocked the election as a sham.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on the state of affairs in the state, Abe queried: “How can a chief culprit, the chief instigator, the chief traducer set up a commission of inquiry? What is he going to do with the commission of inquiry?”
He said a commission of that nature should start with Governor Nyesom Wike, saying he cannot be the person to set up the commission of inquiry.
‘’Let me say this for the world to hear, it does not matter who finally pulls the trigger that took down the life of that young youth corps member. The person who laid the foundation and the circumstances that led to the death of that young man is the governor of Rivers state and who is he deceiving’’, Senator Abe alleged.
‘’What commission of inquiry is he going to set up. Of course everybody knows that it is a sham and we dismiss it and it is unfortunate that there are people who are willing to be used for such activities.’’
The aggrieved senator said any commission of inquiry must start with why political leaders and actors were calling for those who are coming to Rivers State for election to prepare to die, adding that any commission of inquiry must ask what was to be used in killing these people at the point of voting and who is to decide that the election were to be rigged.
Speaking further, Senator Abe stated that he was trying to draw the attention of Nigerian people to certain things happening in Rivers State as direct fallout of the re-run election that took place in the state
He added, “That the exercise is marred with controversies and violence is no longer news. But what is news is what is happening after the exercise.
“Since after the elections ended on March 19, some results have been released by INEC but the result for Tai Local Government has not been released up till now and this is despite the fact that the election in this area was peacefully conducted and INEC has not released the result for reasons very curious and unknown to us.
“But the reasons are not farfetched, it would appear that it is because of the votes that the APC gathered in Tai for the House of Representatives and for the senate, the PDP has gone to town to do all sorts of things in trying to stop INEC from announcing the result.”
Senator Abe added that his group is a bit puzzled about the delay in announcing the result of an election that has been duly returned saying, “We all know that by section 133 of the Electoral Act, once a result has been returned, INEC becomes functus officio, and have no power over the result.”
He recalled that, “before the 19th March election, the list of electoral officers which is a document of INEC was in the hands of Wike brandishing it all about, and threatening personnel of INEC, calling the names of these officials and reading their addresses on national TV. We called the attention of security agencies and nothing was done and these officials became scared, many pulled out, the election was a sham.”
