PORT HARCOURT- Rivers State is under tension as angry and wailing protesters have taken over different locations in the state following suspicions that the government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had perfected plans to thwart the will of the people.
In Bori, headquarters of Khana Local Government Area in Ogoniland of Rivers State, wailing women and other protesting Ogoni men, all wielding cassava leaves and chanting songs, invaded the INEC office screaming blue murder over the alleged uncertainties surrounding the credibility of last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Speaking with newsmen during the massive protests, the spokesman for the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation in Khana Local Government Council, Dr. Leloonu Nwibubasa, bitterly complained that some political agents were allegedly seen rewriting election results from different polling units with the collusion of INEC officials.
The PDP spokesman also alleged that the result sheets and other sensitive materials meant for the Presidential and National Assembly elections were missing.
One of the wailing women (name withheld) who took a break from weeping to answer some questions said they were crying profusely because the few results announced on Monday did not reflect their will as recorded at the unit levels.
At Igwuruta, Ikwerre local council of the state, sporadic gunshots were heard as protesting youths took over and blocked the Igwuruta-Elele-Airpoort Road in violent protest over alleged massive hijacking of ballot boxes in many units in the area by political thugs, allegedly sponsored by the state government.
The youths believed that the ballot boxes were hijacked when it became obvious that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party was winning the race.
A victim who said he escaped from the scene through another route said he almost lost his life in the sudden protest which kept travellers and other passersby stranded.
Recall that the leadership of Labour Party at the national level had called for the cancellation of last Saturday’s presidential and NASS elections, citing heavy electoral malpractice. (Journalist101)