Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike of River State has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, lacked the capacity to conduct credible polls in 2019.
Speaking at the Government House Port Harcourt on Thursday while receiving the Senate Committee on INEC, Wike advised Nigerians not to be deceived by the statements usually released by INEC noting that “the commission’s works negate her mandate.”
A statement by Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant to the governor, Electronic Media quoted him as saying: “Let’s not deceive ourselves, INEC is not prepared for credible elections. If there is an agency that is not prepared for 2019, it is INEC . I have no confidence in INEC. There is no amount of INEC’s preparation that will convince me.
“INEC chooses how it interprets laws to suit those they support. They choose the court orders to obey and the ones to disregard. In one state where it favours a particular party, they obey. In another state, INEC will claim they are yet to see judgments not in favour of the party they support.”
The governor declared that any attempt by INEC to negatively manipulate the will of the people in 2019 will be resisted.
“In 2019, whoever wants to manipulate the process to destroy the outcome, the people will come after that person and the family.
“We will not agree that for anybody to rig elections here in Rivers State. Nobody will do anything contrary to the will of the people, ” he said.
Wike posited that “results are declared at the polling units, but INEC goes ahead to manipulate results at the collation centre as was done in Osun State.”
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On the budget approved for INEC, he said the National Assembly had budgeted money for the commission to squander, but not for the conduct of credible elections.
He said the refusal to sign the amended Electoral Act was a ploy by the APC Federal Government to rig the 2019 elections in connivance with INEC.
According to Wike despite the fact that the National Assembly continues to amend the Electoral Act in favour of the Presidency, the APC Federal Government continues to generate excuses why they will not sign the amended Electoral Act .
He said that INEC and Police were two institutions impeding the conduct of credible elections in the country.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Sen. Suleiman Nazif in his comments said that the committee was in the state to carry out assessments on the preparedness of the commission for the conduct of credible elections in 2019.
He said that the committee carried out oversight functions on the available card reader machines, voter registers and other facilities needed for the 2019 polls.
