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Police, INEC’s Posture Suspicious, Ambiguous, Needs Clarity – Rivers Guber Hopeful

By Emmanuel Nwafor

Sep 28, 2022

The governorship candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) in Rivers State, Sobomabo Jackrich has expressed doubts over the sincerity of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to do the right thing during the forthcoming 2023 polls.

Jackrich, who spoke to newsmen on the sidelines of a One-Day Interactive Session with candidates of political parties for the 2023 elections organized by the Rivers State Police Command in conjunction with INEC, said that while the initiative was a good one both institutions needed to provide more clarifications on the preparations for the polls.

Governorship Candidate, National Rescue Movement (NRM), Rivers State, Sobomabo Jackrich

Kristina Reports learnt that the interactive session, which held on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at the Police Officers Mess, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, was put together to create an avenue for political parties and their candidates in the state to synergise with the Police and INEC on mutually beneficial ways of ensuring a hitch-free campaign and elections.

Jackrich alongside other political stakeholders took advantage of the event to ventilate their misgivings with the preparations for the forthcoming polls, proffering the way forward and offering advice to relevant stakeholders on how to ensure a hitch-free and seamless election exercise come 2023.

Responding earlier to INEC’s Assistant Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Mark Osuro’s statement that candidates of political parties must desist from the use of hate speech and foul language during campaigns, the NRM guber candidate enquired of INEC to expatiate to what extent a statement could be termed hate speech.

Assistant Director, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC Rivers State, Mark Osuro

He wondered if reflecting some challenges bedevilling the state such as unemployment, insecurity and deteriorating living standards during campaigns could be termed hate speech, to which Mr. Osuro responded that candidates must eschew the use of any language that limits the administrative capacity of other candidates or smears their reputation.

Address the Press, Chief Jackrich informed that INEC’s response was unsatisfactory, explaining that such ambiguity in the definition of hate speech could engender multiple interpretations that might jeopardize the campaigns.

He also reacted to the statement by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Eboka Friday that candidates must notify and seek clearance from the Police at least 48 hours before using any area for campaign, pointing out that where the local government areas are big enough to have all the political parties cited there, then it could accommodate more than one political party coming for campaigns.

Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Eboka Friday

He said, having experienced how some security operatives in time past were compromised during elections, he shuddered to think that the 48 hour notice might be a clandestine avenue to deny some political parties the right to campaign in some areas, calling on the Police and INEC to re-examine their posture as it cast a shadow of doubt on the transparency and sincerity of their involvement.

On his part, the candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) for the Rivers State House of Assembly, Eleme Constituency, Olaka Osaro Olaka commended the Rivers State Police Commissioner and INEC for convening the meeting with political parties but expressed his dissatisfaction with INEC’s inability to exhaustively address some concerns raised by some candidates.

He said INEC should give a practical definition of what it called hate speech during campaigns, urging the ruling party in the State to desist from fear of opposition parties, describing it as part of the beauty of the electoral contest. 

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