The Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, has suspended elections in a total of eight local government areas in the Rivers State rerun elections which held yesterday, Saturday, 19th of March, 2016, across the three senatorial districts of the state.
INEC had initially suspended elections
in six local government areas of the state including, Khana, Bonny,
Gokana, Andoni, Tai, and Eleme, yesterday before making the move to
suspend elections in two more local governments today, including Etche
and Asari-Tori.
The reasons for the suspension,
according to the Resident Electoral Commission in a press statement, are
not unrelated to violence and irregularities in the elections in the
said local government areas.
“Further to our earlier pronouncement on
the suspension of the rerun elections in the six Local Government Areas
of, Khana, Bonny, Gokana, Andoni, Tai and Eleme following disturbances
and violence that impeded the electoral process in those parts of the
state, it has also become necessary to suspend the elections in Etche
and Asari-Toru Local Government Area, for the same reason.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary to the State Government, Kenneth Kobani, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, Cyril Dum Wite
were yesterday arrested by soldiers at Kpor and Bori in Gokana and
Khana Local Government Areas respectively in the course of the
elections, even as the election violence that erupted in three local
government areas have claimed at least six lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment