A non-governmental organisation, the New Initiative for Credible Leadership on Sunday called for outright cancellation of Saturday’s re-run elections in Rivers State.
It declared that the election fell short of all known local and international standards of acceptable elections.
In a letter to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Rivers State, Aniedi Ikoiwak on Sunday, the group said it would work with the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET), Africa Arise for Change Network, Nigerians United Against Terrorism, the Arewa Youth Integrity Forum and other NGOs that monitored the election to occupy the Abuja headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should it go ahead to validate controversial polls.
“We are going to work with consortium of NGOs in Nigeria, especially those that participated in monitoring the rerun elections in Rivers to occupy INEC Headquarters if those sham elections are in anyway validated”, the group noted.
The letter, which was signed by Rev Steven Onwu, further urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency if the actors in Rivers state continued to disrespect the sanctity of human lives and not ready to give democracy a chance.
“We have observed blood bath on account of elections in Rivers and one wonders how politicians threw away conscience in order to perpetrate heinous act in the guise of politics, hence we want to submit that Mr President should declare State of emergency if they would not give peace a chance”, they said.
While arguing that no right thinking person will attempt to ascribe the name of election to what took place in Eleme, Gokana, Khana, Adoni, Tai and Bonny Local Government Areas, the group called for thorough investigation to ascertain Resident Electoral Commissioner’s possible complicity in what they described as the worst elections so far in Nigeria.
“There was widespread snatching of ballot boxes, results were written in obscure locations, there were escalated threats to the lives of voters, and armed militants were mobilized to disrupt polls in addition to other unspeakable atrocities that exposed the decline of INEC in the past months to the international community”, it stressed.
