Senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday condemned the violence during and after last Saturday’s rerun in Rivers State.
The opposition lawmakers, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the collated results.
The senator expressed sadness at the killings in a communiqué after their meeting on Wednesday night in Abuja.
Senate Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio told reporters that the meeting acknowledged efforts by PDP’s National Chairman Ali Modu Sheriff to rebuild the party.
He passed a vote of confidence in him.
The communiqué reads: “The PDP Senate caucus met on Wednesday, March 23, with most senators in attendance.
* The caucus noted the reports from the rerun in Rivers State, particularly the declaration of results in units, wards and local government collation centres and resolved:
* That INEC should release the outstanding results in the Rivers State rerun, particularly results collated from polling units/wards/local governments, in their possession.”
It added: “The caucus reviewed the decision of PDP’s INEC and agreed that the timetable of the party’s congresses and national convention remain sacrosanct. This was reiterated by the National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, who attended the caucus.
“The caucus agreed to send a delegation to Rivers State with a view to congratulating Governor Nyesom Wike on the electoral victories and to commiserate with the injured and families of people, who lost their loved ones in the rerun, particularly the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member.
“The caucus urged INEC to reschedule the Imo North Senatorial rerun without delay, pointing out that the 90 days ordered by the court had lapsed.
“The caucus also called on INEC to reschedule similar rerun in Anambra Central and Kogi East.
“The caucus condemns …the violence perpetrated by enemies of democracy during the rerun in Rivers State.”
The caucus, the communiqué added, “called on President Muhammadu Buhari to support the investigative panel into the killings with a view to bringing perpetrators of the violence/killings to justice”.