Coalition of political parties in Rivers state calls for redeployment of Electoral Commissioner

A coalition of political parties in Rivers State has demanded the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the state, Mrs Gesila Khan, ahead of the April 11 governorship and parliamentary elections.

The group in a petition submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja claims that the REC cannot conduct a credible governorship election after allegedly being compromised by the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

The REC was also accused of frustrating the use of card readers during the presidential election on March 28 in addition to hoarding election result sheets.

They called on the INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, to redeploy the commissioner in the interest of democracy, just as they maintained that the people of Rivers State would resist any attempt to repeat what they termed “the massive fraud that was orchestrated” during the presidential election.

Chairmen of some of the political parties persistently called for the removal of the Rivers State REC, saying her continuous stay in the state may disrupt the peace of the state during the governorship election.

The Chairman of Democratic People’s Party (DPP), Chima Nsirim, submitted the group’s petition to an official of the electoral body who promised to present it to the chairman of the commission.

After the submission of the petition signed by the Chairmen of 17 political parties in the state, members of the coalition sang and danced under the watchful eyes of policemen who were on the ground to ensure the protest remained peaceful.

The protesters carried placards with several inscriptions such as ‘Remove Rivers REC now’, ‘No more rigging in Rivers State’, ‘Gesila is corrupt’, ‘Jega save us’, ‘13 political parties demand REC removal’, ‘INEC ad-hoc staff thumbprint for PDP in Rivers’, ‘We will not allow Gesila to conduct governorship election’.

Credit: Channels