Why Rivers State election was not cancelled – Jega

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, yesterday, insisted that elections held in Rivers State despite a petition by the All Progressives Congress (APC) asking for the cancellation of the state’s election over alleged irregularities.

Responding to an observation raised by a member of the APC at the elections collation centre in Abuja, Jega said following the petition by the opposition party, INEC had set up a committee to investigate what happened in the state.

“Sunday morning, I received a petition from APC demanding for the cancellation and rescheduling of elections,” the INEC chairman said.

“I circulated this memo to the Comm. We reviewed it and set up a 3 man Cttee to Rivers & returned this morning w their observations.

“There were a number of points as to why the Commission should cancel/reschedule elections: no elections, no result sheets, substitution of officials,” he said, citing the petition by the APC.

“We cannot establish any cancellation or substitution of results and we sent a list of collation officers to the state.

“Officials fail to show up to work for several reasons and it is up to the REC to substitute from the pool of officials they have.”

However, based on the committee’s report, “We do not believe the allegations are substantial enough to require the cancellation/rescheduling of the elections in Rivers.

“The decision of the Commission is that we will take the results of the elections in Rivers state.”

The INEC chairman, however, promised that the Commission had taken measures to make sure that such situation does not reoccurr in the future.

APC grievances about the how elections were conducted in Rivers State may not be pursued further, especially now that the candidate of the party, Muhammadu Buhari had been declared winner of the preidential election.