Rivers Bye-Election: AA candidate Douglas petitions INEC, IGP, rejects result
By Daniel Abia, Port Harcourt
One of the candidates in the June 20 Rivers South-East Senatorial District bye-election, Dr. Douglas Fabeke of the Action Alliance (AA), has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Inspector-General of Police over alleged irregularities during the poll.
In separate petitions dated June 22 and addressed to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, Fabeke called for an independent investigation into the conduct of the election.
He alleged widespread electoral malpractice, voter suppression, intimidation, violence and manipulation of results across the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial district.
Fabeke claimed that some INEC officials and security agents were compromised during the exercise, alleging collusion to favour the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Olaka Nwogu.
According to him, there were incidents where electoral materials were allegedly diverted, while ballot papers belonging to his party were reportedly destroyed in some locations.
He also alleged that in some polling units, officials failed to properly conduct vote counting, while BVAS machines malfunctioned and in some cases allegedly disenfranchised eligible voters.
Fabeke further alleged cases of vote buying in several communities, claiming that voters were offered money ranging from ₦1,000 to ₦5,000 to influence their choices.
He also accused some electoral officials of interference in the voting process, including alleged manual thumb-printing of ballot papers and inflation of figures in favour of the PDP.
The AA candidate further alleged that security personnel deployed for the election failed to intervene in incidents of violence and intimidation, and in some cases allegedly aided obstruction of electoral processes.
He said: “I hereby reject the result announced by INEC as the process that produced the declared outcome was compromised by widespread irregularities, violence, intimidation, voter suppression and manipulation.”
Fabeke called for a full investigation into the conduct of the election, preservation and forensic review of all electoral materials, including BVAS data, result sheets and ballot papers.
He also urged INEC to declare him the rightful winner of the election after a review of the process.
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