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Rivers State Rerun: Elections Suspended in 8 Local Government Areas due to Violence & Lives Lost
The Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, has suspended elections in a total of eight local government areas in the Rivers State rerun elections which held yesterday, Saturday, 19th of March, 2016, across the three senatorial districts of the state.
INEC had initially suspended elections in six local government areas of the state including, Khana, Bonny, Gokana, Andoni, Tai, and Eleme, yesterday before making the move to suspend elections in two more local governments today, including Etche and Asari-Tori.
The reasons for the suspension, according to the Resident Electoral Commission in a press statement, are not unrelated to violence and irregularities in the elections in the said local government areas.
“Further to our earlier pronouncement on the suspension of the rerun elections in the six Local Government Areas of, Khana, Bonny, Gokana, Andoni, Tai and Eleme following disturbances and violence that impeded the electoral process in those parts of the state, it has also become necessary to suspend the elections in Etche and Asari-Toru Local Government Area, for the same reason.”
Meanwhile, This Day reports that the Secretary to the State Government, Kenneth Kobani, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Projects, Cyril Dum Wite were yesterday arrested by soldiers at Kpor and Bori in Gokana and Khana Local Government Areas respectively in the course of the elections, even as the election violence that erupted in three local government areas have claimed at least six lives.
Photo Credit: This Day
