Wike criticizes N’Assembly for refusing to transmit election results electronically

Rivers has ordered state-employed resident doctors to call off their strike.
The rejection of electronic transmission of election results by All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the National Assembly has been condemned by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.

He called the decision a “coup against Nigerians who want free, fair, and credible elections,” and said lawmakers who voted against the Electoral Act’s amendment were “enemies of the country.”

He insisted that their actions were harmful to the country’s democracy’s growth and consolidation.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to persuade APC members in the National Assembly to support electronic transmission of election results in the amended Electoral Act, according to Wike, demonstrated that he did not intend to leave a transparent electoral legacy.

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This was stated by the governor during the presentation of his nomination letter as “Governor of the Year 2020 Award” by Leadership Media Group management at Government House in Port Harcourt.

Wike claimed that the Ninth National Assembly took advantage of Nigerians’ political apathy by voting against the amended Electoral Act’s inclusion of electronic transmission of election results.

“Those who voted against e-transmission of results never had the country’s best interests at heart. “The children of National Assembly members who voted against electronic transmission of results will ask if they are all right,” he said.

“I can’t believe that anyone who went to school in this digital age will vote against electronic transmission of election results,” said the governor, who wondered what kind of country and lawmakers Nigeria has.

He declared that the APC lawmakers’ refusal to accept electronic transmission of election results, despite the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stated that it has the capacity to do so, amounted to a coup against Nigerians.

Wike expressed his condolences to the Leadership Media Group family and management following the death of the newspaper’s founder, Sam Nda-Isaiah, and urged them to continue to use the newspapers as a voice for the people.

Muazu Elazeh, the Group Managing Director of Leadership Newspaper, said they went to Rivers State to present Wike with his letter of nomination as the Leadership Governor of the Year and to invite him to the Leadership Conference in September.

Also, according to Abraham Nda-Isaiah, Executive Director of Leadership Media Group, this is the first time the newspaper has nominated a governor twice in the same administration, having first nominated Wike for the award in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government ordered all resident doctors under its employment to end their strike immediately or face the government’s no-work-no-pay policy.

While the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has the right to strike, it should be limited to resident doctors on the Federal Government payroll, according to a statement issued by Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Tammy Danagogo.

He explained that the state government owed resident doctors no salaries, allowances, or benefits.