Suspending Elections is Illegal, Says PDP House Caucus

Wants role of military investigated
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives has described the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend all activities regarding the National and State House of Assembly re-run elections in Rivers State, as illegal.

It added that since the elections had already been concluded, with results announced at polling units’ level, anything contrary to announcing the total results, would be a breach of the Electoral Act, and a coup against the people of the state.

The Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor, briefing journalists, also called for an investigation into the role of the military in the suspended the Rivers elections.



“The conduct and action of INEC show not just incompetence, but a regression from the gains of the reformed electoral system as championed by President Goodluck Jonathan, which enabled the APC to win the 2015 elections,” he said.

“Nigerians have witnessed serial regression by INEC in the last few months, from the inconclusive Kogi elections where an interloper was installed without a deputy, to Bayelsa, to Imo where election was aborted and now Rivers,” Ogor added.

The Minority Leader, flanked by the members of the caucus, alleged that the actions of the APC government, threatens the country’s democracy.

Speaking on the role of the military, Ogor said the ruling of the Supreme Court that armed personnel should not go near the polling unit, even when deployed for security reasons, had been disregarded.

“Section 218 stipulates the operational use of the armed forces, and the only person authorised to deploy them is the Commander in Chief. A situation where armed soldiers were carrying ballot boxes and electoral materials, is not only condemnable, but embarrassing,” he said.

“Or have the insurgents moved to Rivers, that soldiers were deployed? We need our soldiers in Sambisa forest,” Ogor noted.