The New Initiative for Credible Leadership has demanded the outright cancellation of Saturday’s re-run election in Rivers State, arguing that it falls short of all known local and international standards of acceptable elections and should have been called off when violence sparked-off in the hours preceding it.

In a letter to Mr. Aniedi Ikoiwak, the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC),  the group said it will work with the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET), Africa Arise for Change Network, Nigerians United Against Terrorism, the Arewa Youth Integrity Forum and other NGOs that monitored the election to occupy the Abuja headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should it go ahead to validate controversial polls.

The letter signed by Rev Steven Onwu, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in the state if the actors continue to disrespect the sanctity of human lives and not ready to give democracy a chance.

It warned the REC that the NGOs “are not ruling out the option of demanding that you (Ikoiwak) stand trial if you go ahead to act in ways that confirm you are complicit in the criminal conduct of the fraud that is now being passed off as an election.”

While arguing that no right thinking person will attempt to ascribe the name of election to what took place in Eleme, Gokana, Khana, Adoni, Tai and Bonny Local Government Areas, the group contended that Ikoiwak has “helped INEC to break its own record by conducting what is now the worst election in Nigeria.

“This posture of INEC in Rivers state greatly encouraged political actors to display lack of respect for the sanctity of human lives to the extent that Nigerians are now greatly worried that they have been returned to the barbaric and Hobbesian state of nature for the interest of very few Nigerians.” It noted.

The letter further stated that “While you (Ikoiwak) continue to pretend that all is well, we have cause to salute the conduct of the security agencies that made efforts to send a strong message to the perpetrators of violence that Nigeria does not belong to them alone. Their reports will form basis to legally act against you when the time is right.

“Despite the complete breakdown of law and order, your commission persisted in conducting the sham to the detriment of the electorate who have no way of expressing their true wishes under the condition in which the poll supposedly held.

“Even security operatives, who should provide cover for voters, were killed alongside citizens they should protect. There was widespread snatching of ballot boxes, results were written in obscure locations, there were escalated threats to the lives of voters, and armed militants were mobilized to disrupt polls in addition to other unspeakable atrocities that exposed the decline of INEC in the past months to the international community,” it stressed.