The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is incapable of conducting a free and fair exercise during the 2019 general election.
Wike made this known while playing host to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif and others, at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Thursday.
The governor said President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the amended Electoral Act, despite a series of revisions by the National Assembly, was a calculated plot to rig the 2019 election in connivance with INEC.
Wike said he has no confidence in INEC’s credibility ahead of the polls.
He said, “Let’s not deceive ourselves, INEC is not prepared for credible elections. If there is an agency that is not prepared for 2019, it is INEC. I have no confidence in it, as there is no amount of the commission’s preparations that will convince me.
“INEC chooses how it interprets laws to suit those they support. They choose which court orders to obey and the ones to disregard. In one state, where it favours a particular party, they obey. In another state, INEC will claim they are yet to see judgments that are against the party they support.”
However, he said the opposition would not sit idly by and watch INEC subvert the will of the people in 2019.
Wike added, “In 2019, whoever wants to manipulate the process to destroy the outcome, the people will come after that person and the family.
“We will not agree for anybody to rig elections here in Rivers State. Nobody will do anything contrary to the will of the people.”
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