By: Felix Ikpotor
Ahead of the Saturday, April 17, local council polls in Rivers State, the State Police Command has imposed restriction of human and vehicular movements in the state.
The restriction is to begin from midnight Friday till 6:00pm on Saturday.
The State Commissioner of police, Friday Eboka made the announcement at a meeting with stakeholders, political parties, security agencies and the State Independence Electoral Commission, RSIEC.
The meeting was aimed at touching grey areas ahead of the elections.
Eboka at the meeting urged politicians and residents of the state not to involved in any form of thuggery or electoral malpractice as the command is fully prepared for the elections.
“We assure you that all the materials to be used for the elections shall be escorted by our men and known shall be snatched. We are going to ensure that the RSIEC officials and the materials are safe. Wherever they are kept, the police would be there to protect it and also escort them back to the headquarters after the elections”
RSIEC representative at the meeting, Dr. Iyeneonwu Tamuno said all parties and candidates shall be given equal treatment.
He said, “as a commission, we have done all in our parties to ensure that participants are given a level playing ground and we want to assure you that we will be transparent. The elections shall be free, fair and credible and as a commission, we won’t derail from out timetable”
However, some candidates of political parties in the elections at the meeting expressed concern over the credibility of the elections and the sincerity of RSIEC.
Some accused the commission of working for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“RSIEC is not prepared. As we speak, only one party is prepared and no grant has been released to any party except PDP because they are in government and it shows that the elections have been rigged already so there is no need going to the polls to fool ourselves”.
Another participants said ” My fear is that PDP should not hijack ballot papers and materials”.
On his part, PDP chairmanship candidate for Ikwerre local government area, Samuel Nwanosike threatened to drag those accusing the commission of colluding with the PDP to rig the elections to court if they don’t retract the statements.
Our correspondent reports that all the 17 political parties taking part in the elections signed a peace pact.
