Protesters demand removal of Rivers REC, Khan

A crowd of protesters from Rivers state has besieged the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to demand the immediate removal of Gesila Khan, the resident electoral commissioner of the state.

The protesters, numbering about 1000, also demanded to see Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, to register their grievance‎.

The protest is coming a day after the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused Khan of colluding with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to unleash violence on its supporters as well as to rig the‎ elections.

The protesters, who all carried placards with inscriptions voicing the sack of the Rivers resident electoral commission, also called for an end to the crisis in the state.

“We don’t want her again,”‎one of the protesters told TheCable. “She must go. We want an end to the problem in Rivers state.”

Expectedly, the protesters became agitated when Jega did not show up to address them, but the presence of security agents forestalled any breakdown of order‎.

However, Shettima Ngiladar, director of security at INEC‎, spoke to the livid protesters, assuring them that the commission would look into their demands.

Ngiladar noted that the commission had received petitions calling for the sack of Khan, but there was no concrete reason for her removal.

“The protesters from Rivers state have written a letter to the commission asking for the removal the state’s electoral commissioner,” he told TheCable.

“We have received the letter and the commission will look at it based on its merit, and whether it is valid or not – because there are such petitions of this nature that people will just cook up things.”