by Deji Abiodun
Thousands of APC members in Port Harcourt Sunday protested against the handling of the presidential and national Assembly elections held yesterday in Rivers State.
Heavily armed anti-riot Policemen have taken over a portion of the ever busy Aba road the protesters armed with placards are marching to the state office of the Independent National Electoral Comission, INEC.
Nigeria enters day 2 of the presidential and National Assembly elections. The extension came as a result of technical problems associated with the use of card readers.
The Independent National Electoral Commission announced on March 28, yesterday, that voting would continue on Sunday at 300 out of 150,000 polling stations.
Amaechi who didn’t vote during the yesterdays elections accused INEC for refusal to release the results sheets for the polls, though the result from the state is yet to be announced by the commission, the governor is currently leading a protest.
Meanwhile, the Leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned against any attempt to tamper with the results of the elections that were concluded nationwide on Saturday, saying Nigerians have voted peacefully and massively and they know who they have voted for.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it has the authentic results from every polling unit where voting took place on Saturday, and will not accept anything contrary to those signed results.
It decried the dangerous kite now being flown by the PDP, through some of their paid media channels, seeking to appropriate unearned
victories across the nation.
”We have always said we will accept the result of any free, fair and transparent elections. We stand by that avowal. However, what we will not accept – and which we are sure Nigerians themselves will reject –
is any move to rewrite the results and thwart the will of the people under any guise. We will not accept that.
”We have heard of the desperate moves to cancel the results in areas where the APC has beaten the PDP embarrassingly. Nigerians will definitely not accept that,” APC said.
The party said it is aware of the ongoing efforts to force Electoral Officers and Presiding Officers in Imo State, some of whom are being picked up by the military as we write, to rewrite the results of the elections in the state.
”We have the results from every polling unit in Imo State and we know that we have won in over 80 per cent in the presidential election. So there must be no shenanigans,” it warned.
APC also said the same attempts are being made in Sokoto, Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos and other states, wondering why anyone will be seeking to reverse the results that are already settled.
”In the Nsukka Local Government Area, INEC officials, instead of collating results, handed over the exercise to PDP Nsukka zone to write. They holed up inside ADADA HOUSE (a Local Government guest house) to write results and change figures, and were provided with security by the police. APC candidates and agents were chased away. In collaboration with INEC, they refused to let the card readers function and no result sheets came to most polling booths.
”In Lagos, they have yet to announce the result of the Apapa Local Government which has been ready since yesterday, apparently in a move to manipulate the outcome. Those who voted will not agree with any attempt to steal their votes,” the party warned.
