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Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike refused to celebrate Democracy Day like his counterparts did in their various states. He has explained why.
Speaking at a thanksgiving mass to mark the first anniversary of his administration at Our Lady of Holy Rosary of the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Port Harcourt, Wike said there was no democracy to celebrate – noting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had destroyed the foundation of democracy by trying to allocate legislative seats in his state.
According to Wike, instead of conducting the inconclusive rerun elections, INEC had completed plans to share legislative seats in the state.
His words:
“We will not celebrate democracy because INEC wants to determine who will represent Rivers State after two months of cancellation of elections so that it can allocate some seats to the All Progressives Congress and others to the Peoples Democratic Party. Is that democracy?”
“We beg INEC to hasten to conduct elections in the remaining seats. We want our representatives in the Senate; we want our representatives in the House of Representatives. We are not saying that INEC should allocate seats to us.”
“We don’t want allocation, we want voting; we will not accept allocation of seats. We will only accept elections for the remaining seats.”
Wike scored himself high in his first year as governor, saying that the people of the state enjoyed the dividends of democracy despite the problems his administration has so far faced.
He said:
“This is one year; you have not seen anything as far as development is concerned. In our second year, more development will be witnessed across the state.