The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has shifted the rerun elections originally scheduled to hold in Rivers State on Saturday, July 30. It was to have held to conclude ballots in about 8 local government areas declared inconclusive by INEC during the March 19 rerun.
However, our respondent Omachi Kingsley has gathered that the shift was predicated on a damning security report turned in by security agents. Part of the report, according to a senior source in the security circle who spoke to Omachi Kingsley, revealed that the police in Rivers State would be overrun by armed party militia should the election hold on July 30. The source revealed that the absence of a substantive Commissioner of Police for the state would leave the party militias with a field day to operate in the absence of a solid infrastructure.
It was further gathered that the ruling party in Rivers State, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had been pushing for the July 30 date as to seize obvious holes in the policing of the state with the absence of a CP. The source told our respondent that Governor Ezebuwon Nyesom Wike had planned to coerce Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers being the Chief Security Officer to do his bidding. Mr Folunso Adebanjo was recently appointed the new Commissioner of Police in Rivers State but barely three days after became a beneficiary of the promotion in the Nigeria Police Force. The Nigeria Police Commission elevated Adebanjo to the rank of an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, and is yet to send a replacement.
INEC is yet to issue an official statement as to the postponement and of any new date. Rivers State has been without representatives at the National Assembly as most of the rescheduled elections on April 19 were marred by killings, arson and other forms of violence. INEC declared several of the seats inconclusive