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We Don’t Know if Military Rigged Elections – INEC

Soldiers block with truck and armoured tank the road leading to the state headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on March 10, 2019. - Fears has gripped residents of oil-rich Port Harcourt city in Niger delta region as state headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission has been condoned off by dozens of fierce looking soldiers, anti-riots policemen and other complementary security agents who are jointly patrolling the city ahead of the much awaited results of the just concluded governorship and state assembly elections. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the military intervened in the governorship and house of assembly elections in Rivers state but it could not say if the involvement was to rig.

INEC had suspended the process because of widespread violence.

While fielding questions on Channels TV on Monday, Festus Okoye, INEC’s director of information and voter education, said the commission went on a fact-finding mission to the state based on what it discovered.

“The fact-finding mission that we sent to Rivers established the fact that the military intervened in some places,” he said.

“We saw them in INEC office and they agreed that they were at some collation centers on election day.

“We did not go out to establish the fact about who rigged elections or who did not rig. What we want to ensure is that we complete collation of results in Rivers.

“We made a determination that the army got involved in the electoral process but whether their involvement in the process was to rig the elections, I am not in a position to make a determination on that.”

Earlier, INEC had said collation centers were invaded by some soldiers and armed gangs resulting in the intimidation and unlawful arrest of election officials.

TheCable had also reported how soldiers and policemen clashed at the head office of the INEC in Rivers state.

The argument broke out over who should be in charge of security at the office which served as the state collation center.

The commission has said results of 17 LGAs were intact and that it would announce the next line of action on Wednesday.

 

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