Rivers Election Of Controversy, Killings

WHEN the Eighth Rivers State House of Assembly will be recon­vening, the controversial Chidi Lloyd will be missing. On the other hand, his colleague in the Seventh Assembly, Michael Oke­chukwu Chinda, who, Chidi Lloyd hit with Mace on July 9, 2013, during the crisis that engulfed the Assembly during Chibuike Amaechi’s administration, will make the list of the 32 lawmakers of the House.
Lloyd and Chinda’s story in the Seventh Assembly was well known during the impeachment saga of the then Speaker, Otelem­aba Dan-Amachree and his alleged replacement with Evans Bipi, who was later, nicknamed “The Authentic Speaker”.
That fateful July 9, 2013, the crisis that engulfed the State House of Assembly would have claimed the life of Chinda but he was revived after he was flown abroad for treatment. At the peak of the brouhaha in the hal­lowed chambers, Lloyd, who was the Leader of the House attacked Chinda with the Mace, hitting it on his head. The injury kept the victim off the Assembly up to the end of the Seventh Assembly. Some political analysts still believe that, that courageous action displayed by Chidi Lloyd, saved Hon Dan Otelemaba from being impeached.
The crisis gave birth to the popular “Five anti-Amaechi law­makers’, which later increased to six at the last lap of the Seventh Assembly. The anti-Amaechi law­makers were: Evans Bipi (Ogu/ Bolo Constituency), Michael O. Chinda (Obio/Akpor Constituency 2), Martins Amaewhule (Obio/Ak­por Constituency 1), Victor Ihunwo (Phalga Constituency 3), Kelechi Worgu (Omuma Constituency) and Ibani Ikuinyi (Andoni Constitu­ency).
However, six of them sustained the struggle and eventually made the Eighth Assembly. Lloyd, who is from Emohua Constituency, could not make it to the House, which would have been his fourth time. He was knocked out by a first tim­er, Sam Ogeh. As expected, Lloyd challenged the victory of Ogeh, and won his case at the Election Peti­tions Tribunal and Court of Appeal, which ordered a re-run.
Before the nullification of the 22 seats in the House of Assem­bly, which, incidentally, affected five out of the six anti-Amaechi lawmakers (Bipi scaled through), the leadership of the House com­prised Ikuinyi (Speaker), Amae­whule (House Leader) and Bipi ( Chief Whip).
Lloyd’s last hope was dashed in the just concluded re-run election, as his opponent, Sam Ogeh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 13,621 votes. Lloyd of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 5,413 votes. Similarly, Chinda of PDP, defeated his oppo­nent, Wali Belief Azeru of APC. The figures polled by two of them were not indicated by the Indepen­dent national Electoral Commission (INEC).
It was gathered that many forc­es worked against Lloyd from mak­ing it the fourth time. People believe that his presence in the House of Assembly would have posed anoth­er danger, and could lead to im­peachment of the governor if APC had majority in the House.
Killings, electoral fraud:Killings and electoral fraud , among other vices which char­acterised the 2015 general elections in Rivers State reared their ugly heads in the March 19, 2016 re­run. Over 15 persons, including a youth corps member, Okonta Du­mebi Samuel , were killed dur­ing the inconclusive election.
Despite the attempt by the mili­tary to mop up arms and ammuni­tion, believed to be in possession of ex-militants, they were still used by political thugs to perpetrate vio­lence during the election. The dif­ference, however, is that unlike in 2015 generation elections where the trigger-happy political thugs operated with impunity, they met a brick wall this time round as the security agents gave them a run for their money. Though the security agencies lost some of their men, including an Army Major and DSS operative, the armed political thugs paid dearly for their action.
On the violence in Rivers Sate, the Resident Electoral Commis­sioner in the State, Aniedi Ikoiwak, had this to say: “I think the attitude of politicians in Rivers State and in the whole Nigeria needs to change. Their mindset needs to change.
“They must know that this Commission is out to conduct elec­tion. I think our politicians still think that elections are being won with the number of guns you have, by the number of bullets you shoot; by the number of mercenaries and number of youths you recruit to shoot.
“If that is what we want to do here, it is not good. I would want the people of Nigeria to change their mind set about election because election is a civic duty. We should be worried that anytime we have election, we close down every sec­tor of the security to move in to go and conduct election; we should be worried.”
Besides politically -motivated killings, one disappointing as­pect of the election is the electoral fraud. Before March 19, the PDP raised the alarm over the circula­tion of fake INEC result sheets. The party had alleged that the All Progressives Congress(APC) hired a printer in Lagos that printed the fake results, with a view to us­ing same to rig the rerun election. Though the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State Aniedi Ikoiwak, has denied the allegation, the
INEC headquarters, Abuja, said it would investigate the allegation of fake result sheet.
The electoral violence, fraud and oth­ers, led to the suspension of election in eight local government areas. The lo­cal governments affected are, Gokana, Bonny, Andoni, Khana, Tai, Eleme Etche and Asari-Toru.
Amaechi’s federal might versus Wike’s grassroots strength
In 2015, when Dr Goodluck Jona­than was still in power, the PDP made use of the ‘federal might’ to deal decisively with the then opposition party, APC, in the state. The military, police, DSS, name it, were alleged to have worked for the PDP in 2015 general elections. This explained why the political thugs, drawn mainly, from the ex-militants ter­rorised the state unhindered.
But when the APC won the election at the federal level , many people thought the rerun election was going to be a smooth one for APC.
Actually, there was heavy presence of security agents in the state, which some persons said would be to the advantage of APC. But it does appear that the APC lacked the knowledge of how to use the ‘federal might’ to win election, like the PDP did in the state in 2015.However, one lesson to be learnt about Rivers State rerun is that, it is not enough to have ‘federal might’ behind you. Events showed that one also needs to have the grassroots that would har­ness the so called ‘federal might’. One thing that Governor Wike has going for him is being close to the grass­roots. And that is what has made the party to beat APC hands down in the rerun election.