River guber: INEC speaks on army ‘rigging’ election

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Monday addressed the allegation that Nigerian army personnel rigged elections in the River State governorship election.

The INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye said army was involved in the election process in Rivers, adding however that the commission cannot verify if the soldiers rigged the poll.

He added that the commission would be holding a meeting with the heads of security agencies on issues such as army intervention in the elections generally.

Okoye told Channels TV, “The fact-finding mission that we sent to Rivers established the fact that the military intervened in some places.

“We saw them in INEC office and they agreed that they were at some collation centres on election day.

“We did not go out to establish the fact about if soldiers rigged elections or who did not rig. What we want to ensure is that we complete collation of results in Rivers.

“We made a determination that the army got involved in the electoral process but whether their involvement in the process was to rig the elections, I am not in a position to make a determination on that.”

Okoye added that there would be a meeting with all stakeholders to ensure that the electoral process in Rivers State will be peaceful.

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