Politics, Not INEC Should Be Blamed For Violence In Rivers

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Abe(Rivers South East) has said that it is unfair to blame the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the culture of violence in the state elections, saying politicians should be blamed.

Abe, in a statement through his media aide, Parry Benson, added that no individual can determine the future of Rivers State.

He said: “Politicians do not go into elections ready to accept the will of the people. They have pre-determined results and will do everything possible to subvert the process to create a particular result.

“If we turn around to blame INEC for all the challenges that come out of that kind of disposition toward the electoral process, it will be unfair.

“There is an election that comes up every four years in Nigeria and every adult in this country knows that there will be an election in 2019 and those who are qualified to vote were prepared long before the due date.

“How you reach out to these people and organise yourself to get the best of the goodwill of the people is the politics. That is the work of the political party. Where you don’t do that and then you give instructions for people to go and vote in a particular manner, your followers could obey but the general population will not.

“If Nigerians, Rivers people want a better state and better life, they must come out and fight for what they believe in and that is what I think we ought to be doing.

“In several places in this country, when these elections were going on, citizens came out and stood their ground and at the end of the day, everybody submitted to what the citizens wanted.

“The future of Rivers is in the hands of Rivers people. They need to come together to decide what is right and how we can make things better in the state. It is not something that will happen by accident. People must come out and fight for it and I am ready to be one of those people that will fight for a better Rivers.”