The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared yesterday that there would be no fresh polls in Rivers State until there the security and safety of life and property can be guaranteed. The commission which is still smarting from the violence that marred last week’s National/State legislative re-run elections in the state said it would conduct fresh elections in areas where voting was disrupted during the rerun,under no circumstance would it expose anyone’s life to risk in the name of election.
A National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member on election duties during the rerun, Okonta Samuel Dumebi was shot dead during the violence. He was one of the several so killed.
“INEC will, at a date to be decided, conduct fresh elections starting with accreditation and voting in all Local Government Areas, Constituencies, Registration Areas and Polling Units where the exercise was disrupted before voting was concluded on Saturday 19th March, 2016,” INEC’s Director of Voters’ Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said in a statement.
