Blessing Okorite, Port Harcourt
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, declared Governor Nyesom Wike, as the elected governor for Rivers State, in the March 9, 2019 Governorship election.
Governor Wike floored his closest opponent, Biokpomabo Awara, of the African Action Alliance (AAC).
While Governor Wike who is the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had 886,264 votes from the 21 local government areas, Awara had 173,859 votes.
On resumption of the collation, on Tuesday, 15 councils were collated while six other LGAs were collated, on Wednesday.
Two other councils, Abua/Odual and Gokana were not collated following serious violence and destruction of electoral materials that marred the election.
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The collation officers for Abua/Odual and Gokana LGAs, Dr. Friday Nwafor and Barano Christian, separately, reported, on Wednesday, that there was no results for the councils.
Nwafor explained that when they arrived the Registered Area Centre in Abua/Odual, they met heavy violence, as youths were seen with various kinds of weapons threatening fire and brimstone if INEC continued with the election in the area.
Dr. Nwafor added that on seeing the rowdy area and how violent it was, there was an emergency stakeholders meeting, where the stakeholders in the area agreed to stop the election from going on so as to save lives and properties.
Said he, “When we arrived the RAC, the place was very rowdy. We met youths who blocked us from gaining assess to the various wards.
“They threatened our staff with various dangerous weapons. At this, the stakeholders in the area met with the EO, and agreed that for security reason election should not hold. The election was disrupted and could not hold.”
On his part, the collation officer for Gokana, Barano Christian, said election was held in all the various wards in Gokana but “at the point of the collation there was serious violence.
“Some materials were destroyed by thugs, while remaining materials were returned the Election Officer who sent it to the Divisional Police Officer of the area. No results were collated later.”
Before declaring the results at the end of the collation exercise, the state Returning officer, Prof Teddy Adias, citing Section 47 paragraph B of the Electoral Act, said “If the Collation Officer of an Area returns 0 forms, it means the INEC will entre 0 for the whole LGA and will proceed with the declaration of result.”
He said there was no results from Abua/Odual and Gokana, it shows there was no election in those areas.
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Declaring the result, Prof. Adias said “today marks the end of an era that commenced on March 9, 2019.
“He announced that “Election was conducted in 21 LGAs out of the 23 LGAs of the state. Registered voters – 3048741, Accredited voters – 1130445, Total Valid vote – 1102823 and Total vote cast – 1123840.”
He said registered voters where election could not hold were 249,324.
He declared that “Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party had 886,264 votes, while his closest opponent, Biokpomabo Awara of the African Action Congress, had 173,859.”
He also declared “That Governor Nyesom Wike of the PDP haven satisfied the requirements in line with Electoral Act, is therefore declared the winner of the Rivers State March 9, Governorship election.”
