A
coalition of political parties in Rivers State has demanded the removal
of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the state, Mrs Gesila
Khan, ahead of the April 11 governorship and parliamentary elections.
The
group in a petition submitted to the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) in Abuja claims that the REC cannot conduct a credible
governorship election after allegedly being compromised by the Peoples
Democratic Party in the state.
The REC was also
accused of frustrating the use of card readers during the presidential
election on March 28 in addition to hoarding election result sheets.
They
called on the INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, to redeploy the
commissioner in the interest of democracy, just as they maintained that
the people of Rivers State would resist any attempt to repeat what they
termed “the massive fraud that was orchestrated” during the presidential
election.
Chairmen of some of the political parties
persistently called for the removal of the Rivers State REC, saying her
continuous stay in the state may disrupt the peace of the state during
the governorship election.
The Chairman of Democratic People’s
Party (DPP), Chima Nsirim, submitted the group’s petition to an official
of the electoral body who promised to present it to the chairman of the
commission.
After the submission of the petition signed by the
Chairmen of 17 political parties in the state, members of the coalition
sang and danced under the watchful eyes of policemen who were on the
ground to ensure the protest remained peaceful.
The protesters
carried placards with several inscriptions such as ‘Remove Rivers REC
now’, ‘No more rigging in Rivers State’, ‘Gesila is corrupt’, ‘Jega save
us’, ‘13 political parties demand REC removal’, ‘INEC ad-hoc staff
thumbprint for PDP in Rivers’, ‘We will not allow Gesila to conduct
governorship election’.
Credit: Channels
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