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Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State chapter of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai and the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to order the military to stay away from election duties in the state.
IPAC described Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections, as bloodiest and saddest day in the election history of the state, and accused the army of being overly partisan, in breach of their duty to be neutral and provide security for the electoral process.
Rivers IPAC, in the statement jointly signed by state chairmen of 76 political parties, and read by its Public Relations Officer, Kukang Joseph, said army’s action in Rivers State was in total defiance to the assurance given by the acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General John Agim, that the army would not be directly involved in the election process.
They noted that Governor Nyesom Wike and several other stakeholders repeatedly alerted the nation on the planned partisan involvement of the army in the election process in Rivers, adding that they apparently fell on deaf ears, as they flagrantly fraternised with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State to rig, snatch election materials, harass collation officers and force them to allocate bogus results to the APC.
According to them, rather than respond to these weighty allegations against the GOC, invectives were poured on governor Wike and PDP stakeholders, calling them false alarmists crying wolf where there was none.
“But, alas, here we are with the disastrous consequences of the failure of the military authorities and the INEC to reprimand and call to order the GOC and his soldiers of destruction that they deployed to Rivers State, for unlawful election duties.
“What on earth can justify the killing of as many as 16 unarmed civilians by the army in a rustic community, which members were barely insisting on their participatory rights and freedoms, in the face of the brazen onslaught by APC thugs to scuttle the electoral process,” the group said in the statement.
The Rivers IPAC further alleged that aside the brutal killing of over 16 innocent civilians, including an INEC ad hoc staff and a National Youth Service Corps member, the soldiers prevented the general elections from holding in Akuku Toru Local Government Area and parts of Asari Toru and Degema councils.
“Major General Jamil Sarham’s soldiers also supported APC thugs to snatch election materials and prevented the elections from holding in the whole of Bonny council and parts of Ahoada West and Okrika councils,” the group said while also lamenting the mayhem visited on Emohua and Ikwerre by the soldiers.
