The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, to set a panel of inquiry to probe the involvement of police officers in the March 9 Governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state.
Felix Obuah, PDP state chairman, who made the call through a statement issued in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday, said the probe was necessary to ascertain the extent of policemen involvement in the electoral crises.
Of a particular mention was the role of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) Commander, Akin Fakorede, whom Obuah accused of killing a lot of innocent people during the elections.
Obuah expressed regrets that one of the collation officers at Khana local government area, Dr. Ferry Gberegbe, allegedly shot by Fakorede later died as a result of gunshot wounds from the F-SARS Commander.
He also said after a thorough review of the report and findings of its committee, INEC had in a release on March 15, 2019, made three fundamental verdicts on the elections in Rivers State.
These, he said, were: “The PDP accepts the afore-mentioned pronouncements of the INEC as substantial representation of the true state of the electoral process before the suspension.
“However, we wish to draw the INEC’s attention to the fact that in addition to the 17 Local Government Areas with fully collated results, the elections also successfully held and results declared at the unit and ward levels in five of the six other Local Government Areas where full collation of results is still pending.
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“We therefore urge the INEC to follow its guidelines to fill the missing gap, if any, in the collation process for the remaining five Local Government Areas by generating the full results from the unit results already in its custody and declare our candidates the clear and unassailable winners of the 9th March 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State.
“We commend the INEC for standing by the truth and for its courage and principled determination to ensure that the votes of the people of Rivers State as freely and overwhelmingly expressed on the 9th of March 2019 in favour of the PDP effectively count.”
He said the Rivers PDP was pleased with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Yusuf Tukur Buratai for inaugurating the Major-General TA Gagariga-led committee to probe the allegations of misconduct, including the assassination attempt on our governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, by soldiers during the 2019 general elections.
“We wish to assure the Chief of Army Staff that the PDP will appear, present and prove before the Committee with facts and evidence of the atrocities committed by his soldiers against the electoral process and the people of Rivers State before, during and after the 2019 general elections,” he added.