By Lucy Caulkett-
The credibility of the Nigerian elections is already in question after the national Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel elections in five parts of Rivers State compromised due to armed thugs snatching ballot boxes containing votes.
The collation in the oil region part of Nigeria continues amid protests that the election there has already been rigged in favour of Bola Tinubu of the APC.
Elections conducted in Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro are all said to have been subjected to serious compromise by assailants who seized ballot boxes votes of its citizens.
Abure- a barrister by profession- (pictured)made the call on Sunday night, expressing shock by the revelations emanating from Rivers State after the presidential and national Assembly elections which held on Saturday.
Abure revealed how thugs invaded various polling units and collation centres, taking away election materials including the results sheets.
He further alleged that the thugs manipulated the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and uploaded fake results into the central portal.
“We took particular note of incidences in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro and several other areas where Labour Party was clearly leading in virtually all the polling units with very wide margins.
“Nigerians went into this election based on the assurances by INEC that the deployment of BVAS was a perfect antidote to electoral malpractices in Nigeria.
“But what transpired across Nigeria, if allowed to stand is purely a betrayal of trust of millions of Nigerians by INEC,” Abure said.
According to Abure, INEC’s staff were intimidated by these thugs who were working in connivance with military personnel and police officers who were deployed to protect them, into doing their bidding, and were forced to manipulate the BVAS.
Abure alleged that some of these manipulations happened late in the night.
“We demand that INEC investigate these atrocities against Nigerian voters by the political class.
“We are therefore asking that INEC should rise to the occasion and cancel all the unverified and manipulated results arising from the presidential and national assembly elections in parts of Rivers State.
“Particularly in places like Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo and Rumukoro amongst others,’’ Abure said.
Footage appeared on Tiktok depicting thugs snactching boxes and burning them, exposing Nigeria’s backward and wayward culture of election rigging, often inspired and financed by shameless corrupt politicians seeking to influence the outcome.
Current governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike, is chiefly suspected to be behind the attacks, following his deep fall out with his PDP party over his failed bid to clinch the presidential ticket which he lost to Abubakar Atiku- the current party ticket holder.
Ballot box snatching is common in Nigerian election, making it a matter of national disgrace that no extra security measures were taken to prevent such catastrophic disruptions by thugs.
The Labour party has already been subjected to a number of assassinations of its fielded politicians, in an election that has the tendency to get both bloody and dirty, , making some of its processes a national embarrassment , particularly after all the assurances of a credible election.
Shockingly, sources in Nigeria claim police can easily be heavily bribed by a corrupt sitting governor not to do their duty of delegating officers to safeguard the interest of public votes by accompanying those transporting boxes containing votes to the INEC safely.