Rivers re-run: INEC holds meeting with Police, stakeholders

The Rivers State Police Command has held a meeting with political stakeholders in preparations for the pending rerun legislative elections in parts of the state.

The meeting at the Police Officers’ Mess in Port Harcourt was presided over by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ade Mohammed who represented the Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo.

The interactive meeting was attended by top security officers, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, and representatives of political parties.

In his opening address, Mohammed appealed to politicians in Rivers State to allow peaceful conduct of the next round of the rerun elections.

He warned that the police would not stand by and watch as hired hoodlums continue to make Rivers State a war zone because of politics.

On his part, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Aniedi Ikoiwak expressed concern about the level of insecurity in Rivers State.

Ikoiwak also blamed politicians in the state for the failure to conclude the legislative reruns on the 19th of March.

He assured that if political leaders would cooperate with the electoral body by not trying to interfere in the process, the rescheduled reruns would be done before the end of next month.

“We are ready but we need to be sure that the politicians are also ready. We have studied everything that happened during the re-run election. We don’t want any of those things to happen again. A situation where electoral officers are being held to ransom is totally unacceptable,” Ikoiwak said.

Meanwhile, the APC Chairman in Rivers State, Davies Ikanya said his party was ready for the elections.

Ikanya called on INEC to ensure that election offenders were punished to ensure that elections were peaceful.

Also speaking, the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Samuel Nwanosike blamed INEC for the inconclusive rerun election due to alleged compromise of result sheets.