APC allegations in Rivers polls lack merit---Jega

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(Nigeria) The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that there was no substance in the petition by the All Progressives Congress, APC, seeking the cancellation and rescheduling of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State.
Jega added that the allegation was not substantial to warrant cancellation or rescheduling of the presidential poll in the state.
He said “We do not believe the allegations are substantial enough to require the cancellation/rescheduling of the elections in Rivers. Sunday morning, I received a petition from the APC, demanding for the cancellation & rescheduling of elections in Rivers State.
“I circulated this memo to the Commission. We reviewed it and set up a three man Committee to Rivers and returned this morning with their observations. There were a number of points as to why the Commission should cancel/reschedule elections: on the grounds of no elections, no result sheets or Substitution of officials.
“We cannot establish any cancellation or substitution of results and we sent a list of collation officers to the state. Officials failed to show up to work for several reasons and it is up to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC to substitute from the pool of officials they have.
“We do not believe the allegations are substantial enough to require the cancellation/rescheduling of the elections in Rivers State. The decision of the Commission is that we will take the results of the elections in Rivers State. We have taken measures to make sure that reoccurrences do not occur in the future,” he added.

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