Austin Tam- George, Rivers State commissioner for Information and Communication, has called on the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, disband the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
Tam-George, in a statement issued shortly after the cancellation of the rerun election on Monday, July 25, 2016, scheduled for Saturday, July 30, 2016, said the state government and the people of the state were shocked by the collusion between INEC and the All Progressives Congress, APC, to prevent the election from taking place.
According to him, the “incompetence and malpractices orchestrated by INEC” were denying the state full representation in the National Assembly.
The statement read in parts, “The government of Rivers State and people of Rivers State are shocked by the bare-faced collusion between INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert democracy in the state.”
“It is completely unacceptable that Rivers State would continue to be denied full representation in the National Assembly due to the incompetence and malpractices orchestrated by INEC.”
“We call on the presidency and the National Assembly to act urgently in the national interest to disband INEC as presently constituted, for its incompetence and open partisanship.”
“We call on the international community to initiate and maintain diplomatic pressure on the federal government, which continues to frustrate the independence of INEC, and the evolution of democratic diversity in Nigeria. ”
“The people of Rivers state will continue to resist and defeat the medieval authoritarianism of the APC” the statement said.
The commissioner praised the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, for his courageous insistence that only free and fair elections would be acceptable to the people of Rivers State.
