Political parties participating in the 2023 Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State have disagreed over the election results being announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Disagreements ensued on Sunday, March 19, 2023 at the Governorship Election Collation Centre in Port Harcourt where some agents of the political parties in separate interviews with Kristina Reports expressed their displeasure over the conduct of the polls, asserting that the results being announced were doctored and fictitious.

They called on INEC to review the entire process, claiming that the results have been manipulated as there was no record of collation after the voting process at the polling units, claiming that the results were hijacked by pro-PDP thugs, adding that aside agents of the PDP, other party agents were not given access to the collation centers.

Speaking, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship collation agent, Moses Salvation stated that “what has been declared so far is a doctored, fictitious figures from the PDP local government offices and not INEC Nigeria or INEC Rivers”.

He also said that the entire electoral process was marred by voter intimidation, vote buying, hijacking of ballot papers, maintaining that there was no collation at the ward level.

An agent of the African Action Congress (AAC), Eugene Eke said “the results do not represent the true reflections of our experiences in our various wards and LGA. Party agents were not allowed to participate in the collation”.  

He asserted that “this is far worse than the presidential elections,” stressing that there were discrepancies between the figures read out and the results on the IREV portal, calling for a proper reconciliation.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) agent, Tamuno Osika accused the REC and other INEC managers of hastiness to announce a winner for the polls, citing cases where agents were denied access to collation centers and results being announced, emphasizing that “it’s important that the world knows that these results are not acceptable”.

On his part, the Labour Party agent, Frederick Weje described the process as “a charade”, stating that Wike has claimed that Rivers State is for PDP and yet nothing to prove it, noting that “every local government area in Rivers State has cases to testify that there’s no election in Rivers State”.

“This entire electoral process is a decorated attempt to manufacture a candidate that is widely rejected by Rivers people,” accusing some desperate politicians of “making the place uncomfortable, asking non-indigenes not to come out”.

But in a swift reaction, Director of Publicity and Communications of the PDP’s Campaign Council in the State, Ogbonna Nwuke dismissed the claims, saying that the results uploaded by INEC reflect what transpired in the field where voters freely cast their votes, expressing confidence in the outcome of polls held in Rivers State.

He stated that the party was grateful to the people of Rivers State for their massive support, describing the comments made by agents of opposing political parties at the State Collation Centre on Sunday, March 19, 2023, which he said were intended to discredit the votes of Rivers people as the “cries of the indolent”.