The Labour Party (LP) tells INEC to cancel the election results for presidential and National Assembly elections conducted in Rivers State. The LP's National Chairman, Julius Abure, alleged that the elections were manipulated in places such as Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, and Rumukoro, amongst others in Rivers.
Abure also claimed that political thugs invaded various polling units and collation centres, took away election materials including the results sheets, and "manipulated the BVAS machines and uploaded fake results into the Central portal". The Labour Party Chairman further alleged that security agents were used to snatch ballot papers.
In a statement, Abure said, "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 the Independent National Electoral Commission, 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 by millions of Nigerians on INEC."
"Some of these manipulations happened way into 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."
The Labour Party Chairman also claimed that they recorded 323 votes at the polling units in Governor Nyesom Wike's compound in Worji, against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which polled 5 and 2 votes respectively. However, the LP did not provide any evidence to support these claims.
It remains to be seen whether the Independent National Electoral Commission will investigate these allegations and take action to address them. The outcome of the elections in Rivers State could have significant implications for the overall results of the presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria.