Corp members are avoiding to participate in the legislative rerun election scheduled for Saturday in Rivers State.
Investigation revealed that corps members who are being contacted to serve as ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission are refusing to participate in the election because of fear of possible violence during the election.
A source who confided in our correspondent said that the corps members were not showing the usual enthusiasm to participate in the election because of the accusations and counter-accusation between the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike , and INEC.
The source said, “Corps members being contacted by INEC to participate in the Rivers rerun election are showing reluctance to serve in the election.
“A good number of them are afraid that there could be violence during the election, and these are young men and women who don’t want to get killed because of some election.”
When our correspondent contacted the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, he said that it was only the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers that could comment on that.
Reacting, the state REC, Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, said the job of corps members was voluntary, adding that those who did not want to work with INEC on election day were free to opt out.
Ikoiwak argued that some of the corps members’ parents might have told them not to take part in the rerun election, adding that such a situation would not affect the exercise on Saturday.
The state REC, however, pointed out that INEC would get more ad hoc workers from other government’s agencies if there was shortage in the number of corps members needed for the job on Saturday.
“From the beginning, the NYSC work is on a voluntary basis. We know that some of them might have been told by their parents not to be part of it (election).
“But if we have problem of shortage of manpower, we will complete them with workers from other government’s agencies and institutions,” he stressed.
Oyekanmi also agreed that most parents would be inclined to discourage their children from participating in the election because of what he described as the inflammatory comments by the Rivers State Government that plans had been perfected to rig the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the legislative rerun election scheduled for December 10will hold in 1,840 polling units spread across the 23 local government areas of Rivers State.
The commission also denied recruiting card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as ad hoc staff to prosecute the election as alleged by the state government.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Aniedi Ikoiwak, spoke when the executive members of the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by the state Chairman, Omoni Ayo-Tamuno, paid him a courtesy visit at the commission’s office in Port Harcourt.
Ikoiwak however stated that bulk of the voting on the election day will be in seven local government areas of the state, including Andoni, Akuku-Toru, Bonny, Etche, Ikwerre, Khana and Gokana.
He insisted that INEC is not recruiting ad-hoc staff for the election, saying that ad-hoc staff used during elections by the commission are brought in from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other federal agencies.
Ikoiwak said: “We want to make it clear that we have nothing to do with any political party. We have where we collect our ad-hoc staff. It is very clear, we are not recruiting ad-hoc staff, that people will write application and so on.
“We collect them from the NYSC, from federal agencies and to compliment shortfalls, we collect students from the university. All the people who are being trained are either NYSC, or students or staff of federal agencies, including those from INEC. If we find out that there is any student who has affiliation with a political party, and we have the data clearly, such student will be dropped.
“That is why we challenge those who are saying it, to give us the list of those people and prove if they are not students or even if they are students, there are some who have affiliations with political parties. Yes, they are students and they have affiliations with political parties and it is proved, those ones will be dropped.”
Earlier, chairman of NUJ in the state, Omoni Ayo-Tamuno, said it was regretable that a number of journalists, who were carrying out their constitutional responsibility were attacked and wounded during the March 19, 2016 rerun election in the state.
He said, “Journalists have only their pen, they don’t wear bullet-proof jackets. The only thing we want is security for our members. During the last rerun election,our members were attacked and a car belonging to one of the was burnt.”
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has advised the Police High Command to take urgent steps to weed out bad eggs from the force.
Governor Wike made the call at the Government House in Port Harcourt during a courtesy call on him by the AIG, Abubakar Marafa of Zone Six.
Governor Wike observed that the bad eggs in the police structure negatively affected the implementation of security measures.
He assured the Zone 6 Police Command of the continued support of the Rivers State Government in the maintenance of security across the zone
According to him, “Our security is becoming stable but it can be more stable if the police can be apolitical. If they continue to see the entire state as their own constituency.
“Even though the AIG has promised me that they will be apolitical, I don’t want to believe it until the rerun. That is the only time we will know whether they are apolitical or not.”
Governor Wike appealed to the Police Zonal Command to support the Amnesty Programme of the Rivers State government, which he said was aimed at improving security in all communities within the state.
The Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal, Thursday refused to set aside the earlier judgement it delivered on December 7, 2015, in respect of the Anambra Central senatorial district.
It will be recalled that the Appeal Court had in its judgement delivered in favour of Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, nullified the election of Uche Ekwunife of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The court based its decision on non-conduct of PDP primary in line with the electoral act.
However, based on recent Supreme Court judgements, which were at variance with the Appeal Court’s decision, Ekwunife approached the court praying it to set aside the December 7 judgement.
She equally filed a motion for injunction seeking to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from conducting the rerun election.
But in a judgement by the 5-man Appeal Court justices, the court refused to grant the injunction.
It equally held that it cannot set aside its earlier judgement, maintaining that there must be an end to the case.
