My name is Engr. Awara Biokpomabo, the Governorship candidate for the
African Action Congress (AAC), the candidate leading in the
Governorship election. You are all welcome to this press conference
on the state of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections
conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on
the 09-03-2019.
My Party, the African Action Congress (AAC) a duly registered
Political Party fielded candidates for the Governorship, House of
Representatives, Senate, and House of Assembly positions for the
General Elections held on the 9th day of March, 2019.
The aforesaid elections held as scheduled and proceeded up to
collation stage in some Local Government Areas, and in some other
Local Government Areas, results had already been collated and
declared, before the Independent National Electoral Commission
suspended the remaining stages of the election, which I was in clear
lead and was coasting to victory. Some of the unit results announced
at the polling units in the Local Government were collations were not
concluded clearly before the suspension of the processes show that I
won over 15 Local Government Areas.
The INEC pleaded insecurity, violence, seizure of electoral materials
by hoodlums etc. as the reasons for suspending the remaining stages of
the Election. I reject the reason given by INEC. This because in the
Local Government Areas that were affected, voting had concluded,
results declared at the polling units and collation had begun before
the abrupt suspension of the process. The Commission does not have the
power under our Electoral Act to suspend elections that has already
been concluded.
My agents at the field reported to me that the results had already
been declared in the under listed Local Government:
S/N
LGA
AAC
PDP
i.
PORT HARCOURT CITY LOCAL GOVERNMENT
11,866
42,190
ii
AHOADA WEST
44,857
5,866
iii
ELEME
27,712
4,436
iv
ASARI-TORU
18,834
2,239
v
AKUKU TORU
57,815
5,696
vi
IKWERRE
96,663
7,554
Vii
OYIGBO
32,026
8,652
TOTAL
289,773
76,633
The Local Government Areas collations were ongoing were:
i. Opobo/Nkoro
ii. Abua/Odual
iii. Okirika
iiii. Ogu/Bolo
v. Khana
vi. Degema
vii. Tai
viii. Obio/Akpor
ix. Gokana
x. Bonny
xi. Ahoada East
xii. Omuma
xiii. Andoni
xiiii. Etche
xv. Emohua
xvi. Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni
The suspension of the elections by INEC was done to give respite to
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was trailing
behind, frustrate my victory. My party went into these elections
against an umpire dangerously skewed in favour of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). The Resident Electoral Commission, all the
Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers, Heads of Department
in the Rivers Offices of The Commission were all working for the
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. No wonder when they saw
that I was leading and would eventually win the election, they raised
a false alarm to the Headquarter of the Commission and misinformed
them that there was widespread violence and seizure of electoral
materials.
We have on good authority the following facts:
i.Every Local Government Council Chairman in Rivers State pays the
sum of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) the Electoral Officer assigned
to his Local Government and other sums of money to other electoral
personnel;
ii.The Resident Electoral Commissioner was bought a house for in
Maitama Area of Abuja by the Governor of Rivers State, who
incidentally is the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP); and
iii.The Administrative Secretary of the Rivers State office of the
Commission, Elder Etim John was paid the sum of Three Hundred Million
(N300,000,000) Naira by Governor Wike as inducement to secure 100
percent posting of the Ad-hoc staff list in favour of the PDP.
To justify the financial inducement given to him by the Governor, the
said Administrative Secretary Elder Etim John did not only ensure that
the posting of the Ad-hoc staff overtly favoured the PDP but he also
got carried away to the extent that he even included the names of well
known relatives of some PDP candidates and chieftains in the list.
On his part the State Resident Electoral Commisioner (REC) Mr. Oboe
Efaga on the eve of the election replaced most of the ad-hoc workers
which were already published on the Commission’s notice boards with
the names of card carrying members of the PDP. For instance, in the
following Local Government Areas the under listed persons were
suddenly deployed as Local Government Collation Officers:
i.Emohua ——- Dr. Peter Medee a card carrying member of the PDP
ii.Khana ——– Mr. Gbenekanu Ledornu who is both a card carrying
member of the PDP and the younger brother of Dr. Barr Mpigi (a
Senatorial Candidate of the PDP) was appointed Returning Officer for
Khana LGA. The said Mr. Gbenekanu Ledornu has just completed course
work on his Ph.D programme. He is not yet a Lecturer not to talk of
been a Senior Lecturer, yet Elder Etim John conniving with Mr. Oboe
Efaga appointed him Returning Officer for Khana LGA.
Iii.Tai: Prof. Patrick Mmon a card carrying member of PDP
The said State Resident Electoral Commissioner Mr. Oboe Efaga has not
been able to conclude any election in Rivers State since he took over
the office. You will all recall that the State Resident Electoral
Commissioner Mr. Oboe Efaga after suspending the PHALGA Constituency
111 State House of Assembly rerun election recklessly abandoned that
election process since August 2018 until date. The AAC will not again
allow the State Resident Electoral Commissioner Mr. Oboe Efaga and
INEC to subvert a free and fair elections solely because it was
obvious to them that their preferred candidate was losing the
election.
I must not fail to mention the role played by the Governor of Rivers
State and the PDP Governorship Candidate in the State, Governor Nyesom
Ezenwo Wike during the collation process at the Obio Akpor Local
Government Council Secretariat. The Governor stormed the collation
center with his army of thugs numbering over 200 fully armed with
AK-47 assault rifles and over powered the security official that were
posted to the collation center to provide security and carted away ALL
the electoral materials including both original copies of unit result
sheets and ward collation sheets that were being used for the
collation of results by the electoral official and took them to the
Rivers State Government House where they were filled out with over
inflated figures. The Army Captain and other military officers that
were shot in the process are still in critical conditions at the
Military hospital, Port Harcourt where they are receiving medical
treatments.
It should be noted that during the National Assembly rerun election in
Rivers State in 2016, Governor Wike stormed the Rivers East Senatorial
District Collation Centre at the Port Harcourt City Local Government
Council secretariat Port Harcourt in the same manner he stormed the
Obio Akpor Local Government Collation Centre yesterday the 9th day of
March, 2019 and forced the Senatorial Collation Officer to declare
Sen. George Thompson Sekibo as the winner at gunpoint
At the Emohua Local Government Area the Electoral officer absconded
with ALL the sensitive election materials and ran to the INEC Head of
Offices in Port Harcourt pleading insecurity while the atmosphere was
calm at the INEC office in Emohua.
Obio/Akpor and Emohua Local Government Areas perhaps were the only 2
Local Government Areas that the collation process were disrupted. The
said disruptions were caused by the candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party himself. Suspending the said election on the ground
of violence will amount to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party benefiting from his own wrong.
In the light of the forgoing facts, I make the following demands:
i.That the results already declared at the aforesaid Local Government
collation centres should be accepted;
ii.That INEC should declare me Engr. Awara Biokpomabo of the African
Action Congress (AAC), the winner of the 09-03-2019 Governorship
election in the state;
iii.The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mr. Oboe Efaga
should be immediately redeployed for gross incompetence. The said
State Resident Electoral Commissioner has not been able to conclude
any election in Rivers State since he took over the office. The PHALGA
Constituency 111 State Assembly election is a case in point.